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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1919, No. 59 



SOME 

PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

IN LATIN AMERICA 



By 



WALTER A. MONTGOMERY 

SPECIALIST IN FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



[Advance Sheets from the Biennial Survey of Education, 1916-1918] 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1920 






ADDITIONAL COPIES 

OF THIS PUBLICATION MAT BE PROCURED FROM 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

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SOME PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL PKOGRESS IN LATIN 

AMERICA. 

# 

By Walter A. Montgomery, 

Specialist in Foreign Educational Systems, Bureau of Education. 



Contents. — Central America: Practical education; Guatemala; Salvador; Honduras; 
Costa Rica ; Nicaragua ; Panama — British Guiana : New school regulation — Argen- 
tina : Preliminary ; illiteracy ; report of National Council of Education ; progress of 
education in the Provinces; changes under the projected law of 1918; secondary edu- 
cation ; technical education ; normal-school training ; higher education — Brazil : 
Vocational education — Chile : Preliminary ; illiteracy ; primary education ; secondary 
education ; training of teachers' ; technical education — Uruguay : General introduc- 
tion ; primary education, public and private ; rural schools ; medical inspection of 
schools ; secondary education ; commercial education ; training of teachers ; higher 
education — Venezuela. 



PRACTICAL EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 

One of the most interesting aspects of the school situation in 
Central America and Panama is the important position occupied 
by commercial and industrial education in the courses of study of 
many institutions. Public men and teachers in Guatemala, Sal- 
vador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama have taken 
into account the need of offering to the new generation an educa- 
tion which shall be completely practical, with the purpose of turn- 
ing the thoughts and energies of all the youth to fruitful service of 
their country. 

The teaching of arts and crafts, as well as that of commerce and 
agriculture, was formerly not begun, as in the United States, upon 
the student's entering the secondary school, though there has for 
some time been a movement to make such instruction a part of the 
work of the advanced classes in the primary schools, to be continued 
in the liceo and the normal schools. 

This universal interest in practical lines of education is a striking 
indication of the influences and tendencies now at work in Central 
America. In the different countries included under this designation 
there are schools and academies, workshops and laboratories, intended 
for the practical education of the student body. When it is remem- 
bered that the introduction of practical and industrial education in 
the school regime of Central America is a matter of the past few 
years, the progress realized is regarded as highly satisfactory. The 
rapid increase of the commerce of Central America, the improvement 

3 



4 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

in the means of intercommunication, the travels of its people abroad, 
the influence of foreign elements in its territory, and the various 
interests thus awakened have aroused in the interior of the Republics 
composing it the belief that national greatness in modern times must 
rest upon economic and industrial foundations. The influx of for- 
eign capital and the consequent establishment of powerful industrial 
enterprises have likewise emphasized the necessity of training men 
for work in such enterprises. The introduction of modern ma- 
chinery, the increase of the different forms of the application of 
steam, the adoption of the inventions intended to gather up the 
results of labor, and numerous similar influences have given rise 
to a tremendous demand in this part of the continent for skilled and 
reliable mechanics. Central America has thus addressed itself with 
enthusiasm to the task of training the children of its schools for the 
activities of the present day. 

The capitals, other important cities, and even many small towns 
have schools devoted to practical education, generally provided with 
buildings and equipment well adapted to this end. Honduras, for 
example, has founded a school for scientific instruction in the culti- 
vation and preparation of tobacco and for the manufacture of cigars 
and cigarettes in the tobacco district around Danli. In several 
Provinces of the same Republic, and in Panama, where agriculture 
is subordinate, the Governments have founded schools for training 
pupils to weave hats and other objects. 

The more generalized industrial schools are those of arts and crafts 
and the so-called practical schools for boys. Their organization 
presents marked differences. In some of the countries named there 
exist schools that receive pupils either as full or half time boarders, 
and offer night courses as the situation demands. In all these in- 
struction is free. The Government generally offers a certain number 
of scholarships in the boarding schools for pupils approved by the 
different Departments or Provinces of the country. Tools, instru- 
ments, and supplies used in the schools are provided by the Govern- 
ment. In return the school exacts of such students certain services 
and thereby carries out certain work that represents a partial reim- 
bursement for the amount spent upon their maintenance. This is 
the case with the schools of arts and crafts in Honduras and 
Panama. Some small schools of this class are maintained by means 
of the labor they carry on for private individuals and by the sale of 
the products they turn out. 

These industrial schools are generally of two kinds : ( 1 ) Those in 
which the training in commercial subjects and in arts and crafts con- 
stitutes part of the regular course of study and (2) those devoted 
exclusively to the teaching of arts and crafts. 



CENTRAL, AMERICA. O 

(1) In those of the first class the pupils study the ordinary subjects 
prescribed by the department of public instruction and devote only 
several hours weekly to arts and crafts. This class in its turn in- 
cludes two groups of institutions. To be admitted to those of the 
first group the pupils must know how to read and write and apply 
the elementary rules of arithmetic. During the entire school year 
instruction is given in Spanish, geography, history, and arithmetic. 
The practical schools for girls and boys are generally of this kind, 
being especially numerous in Guatemala and Honduras. The schools 
conducted by the Christian Brothers in Nicaragua are also of this 
type. The duration of studies is from three to five years, a half day 
being devoted to the classes in the ordinary subjects of primary edu- 
cation and the other half to practical work. In the second group are 
comprised various institutions which require certificates from the 
higher elementary schools, such as the liceo and the higher colegio 
for women in Costa Rica, the National Institute in Salvador, the 
Central National Institute for Boys in Guatemala, and the normal 
schools in these countries and in Honduras. 

(2) Of the special institutions which constitute the second cate- 
gory, there are to be noted two prominent instances in the schools 
of arts and crafts in Panama and in Honduras. In organization and 
purposes they are schools of mechanical arts, and not schools of 
manual training. Their workshops have not been established to im- 
part general notions of manual arts or a general apprenticeship, but 
to train the pupils from entrance upon the line of education chosen 
by themselves. In these schools are taught carpentry, tanning, shoe- 
making, blacksmithing, cabinetmaking, electricity, installation and 
management of machinery, mechanics, printing and bookbinding, 
telegraphy, etc. All workshops in such schools are well equipped 
with machinery and tools. 

All that has been said in regard to modern educational tendencies 
and influences to which boys are subject in the countries mentioned 
can be extended, though in less degree, to the girls and young women. 
Within the past few years women's sphere of action has steadily 
been enlarged, and has come to include not only teaching but va- 
rious employments in shops and mercantile establishments. Within 
the next few years their instruction must be taken into account in 
schools of domestic training, vocational schools, practical schools, 
and the technical colegios. The organization and range of these 
institutions does not differ materially from those for boys. The voca- 
tional school for girls is essentially a school of arts and crafts in 
which the pupils devote themselves from entrance to the study of a 
special line, such as dressmaking, embroidery, millinery, and, in cer- 
tain schools, cooking, washing and ironing, etc. A certificate of pro- 
ficiency is granted them upon the completion of certain assigned 



6 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

courses. The other schools for girls before mentioned combine gen- 
eral subjects with the special apprenticeship in crafts upon which 
they enter as soon as they reach the higher classes of the primary 
school and which they continue into the high school and the normal 
school. 

GUATEMALA. 

The type of industrial education that prevails in Guatemala is 
the combination of general studies with special instruction in the 
arts and trades given in the practical schools for girls and for boys. 
There also exists in the capital a school of arts and crafts for 
women where instruction is given at the same time in the subjects of 
ordinary instruction. In the departments of manual arts which 
are largely, but not exclusively, attended by boys, are taught theo- 
retical and practical blacksmithing, carpentry, printing, bookbind- 
ing and weaving, besides geography, history, botany, chemistry, 
zoology, geology, drawing, and Spanish language and literature. 
In the schools of Guatemala much attention is given subjects of a 
practical nature, with the purpose of training competent workmen 
and artisans. There also exist in this country a National School of 
Commerce, situated in the capital, and a Practical School of Com- 
merce, at Quezaltenango. In both cities there are schools of agri- 
culture which admit to their first-year courses the pupils of the first 
year of the central normal schools. The capital possesses also a 
school of telegraphy, recently founded with the view to installing in 
it a special wireless station. 

SALVADOR. 

Arts and crafts for women, commercial subjects and mechanical 
arts, are generally taught in Salvador in the public schools, though 
their incorporation in the courses of instruction is comparatively 
recent. Many prominent teachers of the country have taken the 
pains to spread abroad the appreciation of the necessity of " enlarg- 
ing the educational sphere of the State, and opening to the youth 
and to workmen schools where they may acquire practical knowledge 
of the sciences and the arts and by these means may contribute to the 
advancement of general intelligence in the country." In compliance 
with these ideas the Government has founded in Salvador a National 
School of Graphic Arts aiming " to aid the youth of Salvador to the 
acquisition of knowledge of a practical nature, and to put it in a 
position to be successful in the economic struggles which are the 
most important signs of the modern age." In this school the pre- 
ference is given to the teaching of physics, mechanics, drawing, 
printing, lithographing, carving, bookbinding, and technical teleg- 
raphy and telephoning. Night courses are also given in this school. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 7 

In consequence of the public sentiment above mentioned, there has 
been opened in the National Institute of Salvador a course in com- 
mercial and economic subjects lasting three years. This course 
comprises the study of various modern languages, commercial law, 
political economy, industrial chemistry, commercial geography, book- 
keeping, stenography and typewriting. The pupils in this school are 
required to work several hours daily for a period in the different 
ministerial departments before graduation. Salvador also estab- 
lished in 1913 a school of agriculture, with a department of animal 
husbandry. Two years later there was established the Technical- 
Practical Colegio for Girls, in which instruction in crafts for women 
is combined with that in general subjects. 

HONDURAS. 

Industrial instruction has attained great importance in Honduras. 
The School of Arts and Crafts of Tegucigalpa concerns itself chiefly 
with products in wood and the metals and is steadily training arti- 
sans and mechanics. There likewise exists in this city the national 
automobile school managed by the Government. For some years 
there has been in operation in Siguatepeque a school of English and 
of arts and crafts, in which are taught fiber weaving, carpentry, 
dressmaking, and embroidery. In the normal schools and in the two 
colegios students may choose between the commercial courses and 
those relating to arts and crafts. In 1915 was established a technical 
practical school for girls, where courses in science and in crafts for 
women are offered parallel with the subjects belonging to the primary 
schools. 

COSTA RICA. 

Costa Rica is another of the Central American countries where 
practical instruction is combined with general. Five institutions 
of higher grade and the vocational schools for women have well- 
equipped workshops, laboratories, kitchens, and laundries. Of all 
Central American States, Costa Rica gives perhaps most attention to 
this special branch of instruction. It is noteworthy that manual arts 
and domestic science are uniformly taught in the secondary schools 
conjointly with the literary and purely scientific subjects. 

NICARAGUA. 

In Nicaragua manual arts form part of the general instruction, as 
has been seen in the case of the normal schools conducted by the 
Christian Brothers. Girls receive practical instruction in the normal 
schools. Some years ago there was established a special school for 
the training of telegraph and telephone operators. 



8 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

PANAMA. 

Like Guatemala and Honduras, Panama has devoted special atten- 
tion to industrial training. The School of Arts and Crafts of the 
City of Panama is one of the largest and best equipped of its kind. 
It is essentially a school for artisans and possesses sections of elec- 
tricity, carpentry, cabinetmaking, printing and bookbinding, carving, 
foundry work, etc, its principal object being to train men for the 
separate industrial branches. 

Panama also has a vocational school for girls in which a year's 
instruction is given in telegraphy, one in laundry work, two in dress- 
making and embroidery, two in shorthand, two in cooking, two in 
millinery and flower work. 

It has likewise a school of agriculture, in which is given a three 
years' course, for which the Government offers 30 scholarships to 
youths approved by local authorities. The Government has also 
founded from time to time specialized schools in the interior, with 
the object of encouraging agriculture or some other industry, such 
as that of the manufacture of Panama hats. Like Honduras, Panama 
devotes the greatest attention to special industrial schools. 

For the furtherance of commercial education in Central and South 
America a Pan American College of Commerce, to be located at the 
City of Panama, is projected, under the joint auspices of the Southern 
Commercial Congress of the United States and the Government of 
the Republic of Panama. The active support of the countries of the 
two Americas is to be sought, and it is hoped that it may be opened 
on January 1, 1921, the quadricentennial year of the City of Panama, 
the first city to be founded by Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. 
The college is designed to train the youth of the two continents in 
practical courses of commerce, shipping, banking, and international 
trade relations generally. 



NEW SCHOOL REGULATIONS IN BRITISH GUIANA. 

The last report of the director of primary instruction in British 
Guiana outlines a new regulation for the common schools. In many 
of its parts it includes novel measures of school organization which 
are of interest as suggestions to other South American States for 
similar action. The regulations relate to the classification of schools, 
the minimum period of attendance, the age limit of pupils, the occu- 
pations of pupils after leaving school, school gardens, etc. As an 
instance of its stringent character, the regulation decrees that when 
any school ceases to conform to certain conditions with regard to 
building, installation, equipment, and health conditions, it shall be 
classified in B category; and if within 6 months it has not satisfied 



ARGENTINA. 9 

the requirements of the regulation, the authorities shall suspend the 
Government aid hitherto granted. It is to be noted that the primary 
schools of British Guiana are not directly administered by the au- 
thorities. 

The school also loses its governmental aid if within two consecutive 
years it does not maintain a fixed minimum attendance, which varies 
according to the population of the locality in which it is situated. 
In return special aids are offered for schools that teach gardening 
for boys and the care of smaller children for girls from 12 to 14 
years. 

The greatest educational need of the colony is the establishment 
of technical primary schools for the instruction of boys and girls 
from 11 to 15 years. It is projected to establish two such schools 
in Georgetown in which there shall be taught, in addition to manual 
arts and other craft, drawing in all its branches, arithmetic and 
geography as related to commerce, the rudiments of experimental 
science, shorthand, and business correspondence. Criticism has been 
directed against the omission of instruction in agriculture, which is 
admitted to be the most necessary branch in the colony. It is, how- 
ever, intended to impart agricultural instruction in special schools 
to be established. 

Because of the fact that the majority of the pupils leave school 
before reaching 12 years, it is not possible to put into practice sug- 
gested plans of giving them preoccupational instruction in which 
they might be making a start before the end of their primary-school 
studies. On the other hand the traditional primary school is not 
adequate to give direction toward a vocational subject. Hence, to 
the regret of the authorities, attempts to link the primary school with 
the occupation of the pupil have been abandoned. 

Much interest has been developed in school gardening; and about 
100 gardens are annexed to primary schools, affording practical in- 
struction to pupils in agriculture and horticulture. The Govern- 
ment has also established 8 model gardens, where instruction is 
given the pupils of neighboring schools. 



ARGENTINA. 

PRELIMINARY. 



Two well-defined stages have marked the progress of national 
education in Argentina since 1916. The first began with the re- 
organization of primary instruction by act of the Federal Congress 
early in that year, which came about largely through the initiative 
and efforts of the minister of public instruction. It had long been 
felt that the legal system in force since 1882 was unsatisfactory, 
134132°— 20 2 



10 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

especially on the point of articulation of secondary education with 
the higher elementary on the one hand and with the universities on 
the other. Argentine educational thinkers asserted that secondary 
education prepared neither for practical life nor for entrance to the 
technical schools and the universities, inasmuch as it had remained 
unchanged for more than a generation, in the face of the social, 
economic, scientific, and ethnical changes through which the country 
had passed. 

Together with this dissatisfaction with a special division went the 
conviction that governmental reform should strike deeper, and in- 
stead of busying itself with plans of reform of courses and schedules, 
should settle the fundamental question of what should be the nature 
and aims of the national secondary school. This could be done only 
by so modifying the prevailing system as to make it fit the needs 
of the school population according to their age, social conditions, 
and probable future. Proof that it had not so adapted itself was 
thought to be found in the fact that of the pupils annually com- 
pleting the 4a elementary grade only 45 per cent continued into the 
colegios nacionales, as contrasted with 55 per cent who went into 
the 5a grade and commercial schools, while on a moderate estimate 
60 per cent left with insufficient equipment for their needs as useful 
members of society. Furthermore, the secondary school, as organ- 
ized, offered no opportunity to boys and girls of 13 and 14 years 
to choose the advanced courses and vocational training for which 
they felt an aptitude, and so to secure adequate preparation for the 
university studies or for advanced technical, industrial, and com- 
mercial schools. 

For this lack of correlation between educational divisions it was 
proposed to substitute a logical and unbroken sequence. What came 
to be commonly accepted among education authorities as best serv- 
ing this purpose was a common intermediate school of three years 
of an essentially practical character, carrying on general elementary 
instruction by means of book lessons and developing by special ex- 
periments and practical methods individual aptitudes by which to 
determine future training. As the basis for such a school primary 
education had, of course, to be modified, and after months of dis- 
cussion a scheme for general modification of the entire educational 
fabric was outlined (1916). According to this, the primary school 
proper was to cover four years; the uniform middle school of the 
first grade one year; and the differentiated middle school of the 
second grade two years. Upon these were to be based the colegios 
nacionales, the normal schools, the industrial schools, the various 
higher special schools, and the national universities. Though mark- 
ing a meritorious attempt to articulate the several divisions, the 



ARGENTINA. 11 

project did not work out satisfactorily in actual operation, and as 
a constituent part of the national system it was repealed after about 
a year of operation. 

ILLITERACY. 

On a basis of population estimated (1917) at slightly more than 
eight millions, 725,000 were estimated to be illiterate, about 42 per- 
cent of the school population. Illiteracy is most rife in remote Prov- 
inces of the Andes and in the Territories, sparsely settled and inhab- 
ited by people of roving habits and poorly developed industrially. 
Under the lead of the director general of the schools of the Province 
of Mendoza, a systematic campaign to eliminate illiteracy was begun 
in 1916. It was recognized that financial considerations made it im- 
possible to establish the number of primary schools which would be 
demanded, certainly not for the many remote points where only the 
legal minimum of 15 or 20 illiterates were to be found. Home 
schools {escuelas del hogar) were therefore established, officially 
ranking as auxiliary to the already existent schools, for illiterates of 
8 to 20 years, and offering as a minimum curriculum reading, writ- 
ing, the four fundamental operations of arithmetic, the duties of the 
Argentine citizen, elements of ethics, and personal hygiene. Such 
schools may begin any day of the year, and with a minimum of five 
pupils. Any person desiring to open such a school must fulfill the 
following conditions: 

(a) He must be at least 20 years of age, of good moral reputation, 
certified by the chief civil official of his residence. 

(b) He must speak the national language correctly and be able to 
give instruction in it. 

Such schools shall not be established at less distance than 5 kilo- 
meters from an established primary school supported by national, 
provincial, or local funds, but if the school be intended exclusively 
for boys from 15 to 20 years old it may be located at any point. Such 
schools are to be visited freely by school and civil authorities, and by 
persons designated by the provincial general inspectors. 

Related in character to the escuelas del hogar of the Province are 
the escuelas tutoriales, established by national decree of 1916, apply- 
ing to all the Provinces and especially to the Territories. In these 
schools, established at points designated by the National Council of 
Education, any number of children not regularly enrolled in the pri- 
mary schools may be taught by private individuals who conform to 
the requirements of primary teachers, and by teachers regularly en- 
gaged in primary work. The latter, by special exception, receive 
additional compensation for such instruction. The same law also 



12 BIENNIAL SUEVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

provides remuneration, to be fixed by the general council of education 
of the Province or Territory for all persons, not teachers, who are 
certificated to have taught illiterates, whether children or adults, to 
read and write. 

Most novel of all undertakings for the wiping out of illiteracy are 
the traveling schools (escuelas ambulantes) . Provided for by the 
original organic school law of 1884, these schools were not, because 
of lack of funds, put into operation until 1914. Up to that time 
there was a conviction that their need was insignificant by contrast 
with the greater problem of illiteracy in the cities, and that to scatter 
funds available for combating illiteracy was not prudent. How 
serious this mistake was appeared in 1914 when it was ascertained 
by systematic count that of nearly 35,000 children of the Territories 
not in school only 6,000 lived in towns. 

Located first in Province of Catamarca, and in the mountain 
regions of Rio Negro and the Chubut, these schools are built of 
materials easily transportable, and accommodate an average of 25 
pupils. Sites are selected for them which are most accessible to the 
largest number of children in the district. Teachers traverse such 
regions on foot or muleback, carrying necessary equipment for in- 
struction, and remain four and one-half months at each place, giving 
instruction in reading, writing, elements of arithmetic, and hygiene. 
A decided advantage is found in this succinct curriculum, the average 
of successful study by the pupils of these schools being, it is claimed, 
fully on a par with that of the pupils of the nine months' primary 
schools, who are required to take the standard number of subjects. 

Within their first two years of existence, 20 of these schools were 
established, as reported by the National Council of Education in 
December, 1916; and 12 were added in 1917. The report of the 
inspector general of the Province of Mendoza concluded as follows : 

This new type of school must exist for many years in Argentina to answer 
the needs of the actual distribution of the population, the lack of adequate 
means of communication, and the impossibility of maintaining fixed schools 
in the greater part of the zones engaged in agriculture and cattle raising. It 
behooves the authorities, therefore, to continue the improvement of the system 
in such manner that its efficiency shall be steadily greater, and that results 
shall amply compensate for their maintenance. 

An interesting phase of social conscience is shown in the generous 
offer of the women pupils of the third and fourth years of the normal 
school at Santa Fe to instruct illiterates afternoons and nights in 
reading, writing, the elements of arithmetic, national language and 
history, and practical personal and school hygiene. This offer has 
been highly commended both by Argentine and foreign educators 
as a step toward solving the problem of illiteracy, worthy of .imita- 
tion nationally and locally. 



ARGENTINA. 13 

The struggle against illiteracy has been the subject of serious con- 
sideration by the executive, the chief school authorities, and the Con- 
gress. The executive has constantly urged the National Council of 
Education to intensify its campaigns and has cooperated by all means 
in his power in the steady diffusion of education. The Houses of 
Congress have also busied themselves especialy with this grave 
problem. These efforts have borne fruit which, if not visible at the 
present time, is certainly destined to raise the level of popular educa- 
tion within the next few years. The authorities have judged that 
what is needed is the patient labor which does not require an imme- 
diate and striking solution of a most difficult problem, but is willing 
to continue to exercise an ever-increasing influence upon the rising 
generation, confident of the spread of education and enlightenment 
with the increase of population and the improvement in means of 
communication; and that it is not wise to sow schools broadcast 
throughout the Republic merely for the pleasure of doing something 
and of doing it rapidly. The success of the struggle against 
illiteracy, certain as it is, has its roots not in merely spending much 
money, but in spending money well. 

REPORT OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION. 

The progress of education in Argentina is best epitomized in the 
report of the National Council of Education for the four years end- 
ing December 31, 1916. The character of this council is unique in 
educational polity, wielding, as it does, greater powers than any 
similar body in countries educationaly advanced, and counting in 
its membership some of the ablest men in the Nation. Its reports 
follow traditionally the line of national (the capital city), pro- 
vincial, and territorial administration. When the very hetero- 
geneous character of the population of Argentina, due to the steady 
stream of immigration, is taken into account, the necessity of such 
a central body, vested with powers of initiation and execution in 
primary education, is apparent. By a wise division of powers in the 
original organic law, the control of secondary education was left in 
the hands of the Provinces, with subsidies granted by the National 
Government, as was the right to prescribe subjects essential to na- 
tionalistic and patriotic training. Concentration of effort and power 
is thus secured, with national acquiescence in the official actions of the 
council. Its activities center naturally around the establishment of 
new schools and the construction of school buildings, and the train- 
ing of teachers to meet the demands of modern conditions. 

As a substitute for the abortive intermediate schools established 
in 1916, which soon proved unsatisfactory, the council decided later 
in that year to establish, parallel and auxiliary to the higher pri- 



14 - BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

mary schools, one of practical arts and crafts for each sex in every 
district of Buenos Aires. Such schools approximated 100 in num- 
ber. This type of sckool was designed for boys and girls not intend- 
ing to proceed to higher studies, and was later to be extended to 
the nation at large. Its purpose and program of studies was two- 
fold — to complete the theoretical and higher courses of the higher 
primary schools with vocational, technical, and manual training, 
based upon and making use of the materials which were peculiarly 
Argentine and local in industries, commerce, art, and economics; 
and to lay stress throughout on nationalistic and patriotic aims. 
An interesting feature, common to these new schools and the con- 
tinuation schools now arising in England and France, is the pro- 
vision by which they operate 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours 
in the afternoon or night, and are to admit pupils from the fourth 
to the sixth grade of the primary schools, who have reached the 
age of 12 years. Statistics as to the success of these schools are 
not as yet available. 

In the matter of building primary schools proper, the report of 
the council shows progress throughout the four years covered. A 
total of 62 schools, with 426 teachers and 19,563 pupils, was added 
to the system. Because of national economic and financial condi- 
tions prevailing half a century ago, the great majority of the pri- 
mary schools began operation in private buildings, which did not 
conform to pedagogical or even sanitary requirements. For many 
years excessive rents were often paid by the State, but upon the 
revaluation of property in many Provinces in 1915, an economy in 
rents was effected, and the funds thus saved were devoted to new 
schools. Despite high prices of material and difficulties of labor, 
in December, 1916, eleven school buildings were in process of erec- 
tion, at an* estimated cost of $750,000, with a capacity of 22,000 pu- 
pils. According to the report of the council : " The construction of 
properly equipped Government primary school buildings has con- 
stituted one of the most serious problems and, therefore, one of the 
chief occupations of the council." It was frankly admitted, how- 
ever, that, with all the efforts of the council, accommodations for 
children in the primary schools were still far from adequate, it be- 
ing estimated on that date that 4,000 additional schools of this 
grade were needed for the more than 600,000 children in the capital 
and the Territories who, for one reason or another, were not in school. 

The activity of the council continued to be marked in 1917. In 
April of that year, 143 new schools were decreed, 39 for the Federal 
Capital, 18 for the Provinces under the legal national subvention, 
and 86 for the Territories (30 being escuelas amhid 'antes) , the Con- 
gress voting two millions in the national budget for the execution of 
this decree. The centralizing tendencies of South American coun- 



ARGENTINA. 15 

tries in general, and the overwhelming dominance of the capital, 
secured for it so generous a share of this that it is estimated that 
in the Federal capital there will be for the first time room for all 
children of school age. For the poorer Provinces, and the Terri- 
tories, which by the Tainez law of 1886 are absolutely dependent 
upon the central authority of the National Council, 250 schools of 
one and two rooms were assigned, but on an estimate about one-third 
of the children were still left unprovided with school facilities. 
Attention was repeatedly called to the need of a uniform and rig- 
orously applied national law for compulsory school attendance. 

During the year 1918 approximately 400 schools were established, 
and the council proposes to establish as many more during 1919 in 
the Provinces and the national Territories. The nation has taken 
charge of many provincial schools which the respective governments 
could not maintain by reason of lack of resources. The Province of 
Mendoza alone transferred 130 schools to the council of education 
during the month of August, 1918. Relative to the establishment of 
schools, regard has been had chiefly to the population of the districts 
which petitioned for them, as well as the number of children of 
school age, in order that the buildings may be installed in populous 
centers, where a constant attendance of pupils is reasonably assured. 

The general plan of the council for the diffusion of primary educa- 
tion has not been put into practice in full, because of the lack of 
resources in some instances and in others because of the scarcity of 
building materials in the country. School equipment has been 
secured in various countries, supplies necessary having been pur- 
chased in the United States to the value of $350,000. The demand 
has been still unsatisfied, the capital city alone calling for the estab- 
lishment of new schools every year, because of the increase of children 
of school age, and the Provinces have always been behind the neces- 
sary number of school buildings and facilities and have never reached 
the goal set by the authorities. An encouraging feature of the situa- 
tion is that upon the completion of all the school buildings now under 
construction accommodations for 56,000 pupils in addition will be 
provided. 

Peculiar attention has been given to the development of night 
schools by the council, 86 having been established and maintained by 
the council in the four years covered by the report. An admirably 
broadened scope was given them in the appeal issued by the council 
to the nation that the full purpose of such schools should be realized 
not only by the attendance of illiterates, but also of youths and 
adults " who, possessing some degree of education, are also desirous 
of improving that as related to the needs of their lives." All reforms 
and modifications of night schools have concerned themselves with 
this larger clientele. A further socializing of the night school is seen 



16 BIENNIAL SUEVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

in the appeal of the council to proprietors, managers of factories, and 
employers of labor generally to encourage in every way in their 
power their employees to attend night schools and to offer prizes of 
various kinds for diligence and progress. Literature bearing on these 
schools was distributed free by the council. 

In 1915 the council was empowered, by the terms of the will of a 
philanthropic resident of Buenos Aires, Don Felix Berasconi, who 
bequeathed for educational purposes a sum of three and a half mil- 
lion dollars, to proceed to the erection and establishment of an insti- 
tution under State control which should give instruction in general 
primary, scientific, scientific-industrial, physical, and social educa- 
tion. A building was to be begun in 1916, planned in seven sections, 
conforming to the most modern pedagogical and sanitary demands, 
and with a capacity of more than 3,000 pupils. Designed to benefit 
the working people preeminently, it was to be situated in the section 
of the city showing the greatest proportion of them. 

Responding to the general feeling of dissatisfaction with the re- 
sults of primary education in the city of Buenos Aires, which has 
been unaffected by criticism for seven years, the council in June, 1917, 
sent out questionnaires to all inspectors and to the body of teachers 
calling for an expression of opinion as to (1) the merits and defects 
of the plans of studies, schedules, etc., then in force; (2) those of 
projected or possible programs, with additional features worthy to be 
incorporated; and (3) educational considerations bearing upon the 
problems of the schools of the capital. The answers showed encour- 
aging grasp of the educational needs of the city, with significant 
unanimity as to the practical methods of working out necessary 
reforms. Salient points were : 

1. That all programs should leave room for and be closely articu- 
lated with manual arts and domestic economy. 

2. That the courses of arithmetic in the first, second, third, fourth, 
and fifth grades were overloaded, as were those of grammar in the 
fourth, geometry in the third and fifth, nature study in the second, 
geography in the second and fifth, singing in the second, and music. 

3. That the primary school cycle should commence at 7 years and 
end at 12. 

4. That primary courses and schedules for urban schools should 
be strictly differentiated from those for rural and country town 
schools. 

5. That from October 15 to April 15 the school day should be 
from 7.30 to 11.30; from April 15 to September 30 from 12 to 4. 

6. That the advancement of the teacher with the class merited a 
fair trial, the teacher remaining with the same class a minimum of 
two years and a maximum of three. 



ARGENTINA. " 17 

7. That the establishment of normal schools essentially for rural 
teachers was imperative. 

It is recognized that the clearness and sanity of these answers had 
a marked effect upon the substance of the law presented to the Fed- 
eral Congress in August, 1918. 

Another interesting instance of the submission of a pedagogic 
matter to the teachers of the city of Buenos Aires is shown in the 
questionnaire asking their opinion as to the best method of teaching 
spelling, sent out by the inspector of the tenth district, to the 
teachers. In accordance with the answers to this, the vocabulary 
used in primary schools was reduced to categories corresponding to 
the several grades, to its difficulties, and to the actual needs of the 
life and dominant occupations of the quarter of the city from which 
the children were drawn. This step was highly commended in 
French educational circles as marking efficient grappling with 
pedagogical difficulties felt in all cities of whatsoever country. 

The regulation of the medical and dental inspection of national 
schools, under decree of March, 1918, was noteworthy. According 
to this, professional inspectors, chosen by the Government, must 
within the first three months of each school year examine indi- 
vidually all children entering school for the first time, periodically 
inspect the school buildings and ground and the health conditions of 
the teaching and administrative staffs, and take all prophylactic 
measures deemed necessary against epidemics and contagious dis- 
eases. Such reports shall be transmitted to the medical inspector 
general. Dental inspection of schools is to have a prominent part. 
Every month the chief inspector shall assemble for report and mutual 
discussion all medical and dental inspectors in such territorial divi- 
sions as he shall see fit. 

Of the regulations in detail promulgated by the council in 1918, 
the most important is that changing the school year to two divisions, 
the first beginning March 1 and continuing until June 30, followed 
by three weeks of vacation, and the second beginning July 21 and 
continuing until November 20, followed by the long vacation of the 
year. This change is regarded as conforming with climatic effects 
upon the health of school children and as being a step long needed. 

PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVINCES. 

Outside the scope of the National Council are the powers of the 
provincial councils. These are local, auxiliary, and reinforcing in 
character. Some of the Provinces are practically inactive on the 
side of primary education, contenting themselves with the provi- 
sions made in that field by the National Government. Others, how- 
ever, among them Santa Fe, San Luis, Cordoba, Entre Bios, and, 
*_ 134132°— 20 3 



18 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

of course. Buenos Aires, are worthy of note and commendation for 
steady interest in matters educational, and in financial support of 
schools carried on independently of the central authority. 

Progress in the Province of Santa Fe, as evidenced by the annual 
message of the governor of that Province for 1917, was steady, 
despite the need of economy in provincial finances due to conditions 
resulting from the World War. An increase of 14 provincial schools 
over the year previous and of the grades in 36 schools was noted. 
Two problems were kept steadily in view : The improvement in the 
teaching personnel, accentuated by the disclosure of the fact that 
more than one-third of the teachers in the provincial schools lacked 
teacher training, and the construction of better school buildings. It 
was estimated that with these from 25 to 30 per cent of additional 
pupils could be taught by the same teaching force. 

In the Province of San Luis the general inspector of provinces 
reported for 1916 the establishment of 160 local associations of the 
national Amigos cle la Education. This society, composed of parents 
and others interested in primary education, has for its objects the 
dose linking of home and school, the fight against illiteracy, the 
promotion of good feeling and companionship between natives and 
immigrants, the celebration of national festivals, the securing of 
better primary enrollment and attendance especially by the poorer 
children, with the inculcation of their self-respect, and cooperation 
with the regional and national authorities in the safeguarding of 
public health. 

In this Province, by volunteer organizations of teachers and others 
interested, local patriotic conferences were inaugurated on topics of 
national history, hygiene, political economy, ethics, and themes gen- 
erally related to home and school matters. 

In the Province of Buenos Aires school excursions have been de- 
veloped and made an organic part of instruction in civic and national 
spirit. They have been so arranged that children in the several zones 
may come by personal touch to know and correspond by letter with 
each other. In some places participation in these excursions has 
been made a reward of good lessons and conduct. They are to be 
taken in the last 15 days of October, and children are not to remain 
more than 3 days in one locality. Groups of not more than 12 pupils 
are recommended. 

In July, 1916, the council general of the Province of Buenos Aires 
initiated courses in the normal school for the training of teachers 
and graduates of the normal schools in the recognition and study of 
retardation and its causes, and in early correction of abnormalities 
most frequently met. The program of courses includes a series of 16 
lessons on related medical and pedagogical topics. 



ARGENTINA. 19 

Of direct bearing upon educational problems among the rural 
population is the project of the law recently sent by the executive 
of the Province of Buenos Aires to the legislature, providing for the 
issuance of bonds to the amount of $45,000,000 for the expropriation 
of parts of the great landed estates and the division of the land thus 
expropriated into small tracts for the use of small farmers. Subse- 
quent purchase under advantageous terms is to be encouraged. Ac- 
cording to reports, the prevailing system of " arrendatorios," or 
small tenants for short terms, has led to so acute an agrarian unrest, 
with the consequent shifting and aimless wandering of an increasing 
element of the population, as to constitute a social and economic men- 
ace no longer to be ignored. The educational effects in the increase 
of illiteracy and the general retardation of primary education have 
been manifest. 

In 1918 the Legislature of the Province of Entre Rios enacted into 
law a series of provisions guaranteeing the stability of the* scale of 
salaries for teachers in provincial schools. Promotion and increase 
of salary were based rigorously upon merit; teachers were declared 
unremovable during good conduct and fitness; initial salaries were 
fixed as follows: (a) For normal teacher, $160 per month; (6) for 
rural normal teacher, $120 per month; (c) for rural teacher, $100 
per month; (d) for special teacher, $80 per month. Every five years 
the teacher who has worked in the same place for that period shall 
receive a bonus of 20 per cent on his initial salary. 

The government of the Province of Cordoba has approved a plan 
for the introduction of agricultural courses in the primary schools, 
presented and prepared by experts in agronomy and pedagogy, with- 
out dislocation of existing courses and schedules. 

The inspectors of this Province presented for the consideration of 
the provincial chamber of deputies the project of a law to establish 
a normal school for the preparation of rural teachers exclusively, the 
courses offered being: 

(a) The development of subjects related to fundamental studies 
in the primary schools; 

(b) Practice teaching adapted to the needs of the primary schools 
of the locality ; and 

(c) Elementary teaching, both theoretical and practical, in manual 
arts, agriculture and cattle breeding, and minor rural industries. 

Private schools conforming to governmental requirements were 
legally recognized and incorporated by decree of 1917 and their con- 
sequent validation effected. Pupils of the fifth and sixth grades of 
such private schools applying for leaving certificates are required 
to undergo an examination upon all subjects for those grades of the 
official national programs before a board of three members appointed 
by the inspector. 



20 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

Officially apart from the Ministry of Public Education but call- 
ing- for special mention was the establishment in 1917 under the 
encouragement of the National Department of Agriculture of 16 
schools in rural domestic science in nine Provinces, including Buenos 
Aires. Courses are offered in minor industries, such as dairying, 
beekeeping, care of fowls, hog raising, agriculture, horticulture, and 
canning of fruits and vegetables. Five hundred women have been 
enrolled. A number of these schools, the largest at Tucuman, have 
been put on a permanent basis, and private associations are working 
to effect this in many places. 

School celebrations of national festivals, long popular in Argen- 
tina, have been especially marked during the year 1918, the cen- 
tennial year for the nation. They were held in all schools on 
July 8, the chief feature being the oath to the flag and the singing of 
the national hymn in the presence of the school and civic authorities. 

CHANGES UNDER THE PROJECTED LAW OF 1918. 

Following the former order of education in Argentina, the second 
stage of primary education began with the educational bill sub- 
mitted with the approval of the President to the Federal Congress 
in August, 1918. In this were incorporated changes of far wider 
scope than any ever before projected. Not only primary education, 
but the entire fabric of Argentine education was to be nationalized 
in content of courses, in methods of instruction, and in special prepa- 
ration of teachers for tasks devolving on them under the new regime. 
The bill provided for large development of industrial and vocational 
courses and called for the use of materials peculiarly national and 
local. It laid stress upon civic and patriotic training, in view of the 
heterogeneous constitution of the Argentine population through 
steady streams of immigration and the necessity of molding thfcse 
diverse elements into a body of patriotic and intelligent citizens. It 
provided for the establishment of primary schools throughout the 
nation under more flexible financial and administrative regulations 
than the old, for the segregation of specific revenues for the exclu- 
sive use of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and the consequent 
abolition of the old system of national subsidies to individual local- 
ities. Especially in the fight against illiteracy did the projected law 
embody progressive features. The National Council of Education 
was empowered to establish standard primary schools wherever there 
were as many as 20 illiterate children of school age. In the message 
which accompanied the recommendation of the law the President 
pointed out that the projected law tended to give unity and stability 
to the several divisions of education under the direction of the de- 
partment of national instruction and adapted them to the material 



ARGENTINA. 21 

progress of the nation and to latter-day civilization. His identifica- 
tion of popular education with national progress justifies a quotation 
at length : 

As primary education was established by law in 1864, it contains regulations 
which in reality have lost their original justfication ; for Argentine civilization 
now demands urgent reforms in the the matter of general instruction in order 
to give greater consistency and reason to the latter, and in order to make it 
more practical, more adaptable to the various regional needs of the Republic. 
It is especially urgent to carry its action to all the sections of the country not 
yet reached by the system in order to arrive at the real aims of a truly na- 
tional education. Chief among these is to eradicate illiteracy, the most patriotic 
task in which we can engage and the one upon whose successful execution alone 
can any real national progress and enlightenment rest. 

The institutions of higher education have continued to develop in the direc- 
tion of autonomy and within the limit determined by the law of 1885 ; but with 
the primary, they demand modifications in the course and arrangement of 
studies in order to abolish antiquated practices and methods and to reach the 
level of the great modern universities of the world. 

v f Secondary instruction, in its turn, has lacked and still lacks a law to fix it in 
definite form and to define its real character in accordance with constitutional 
precepts and the nature of our political institutions. It has existed subject 
to the continual change of plans and regulations, harassed by the application of 
widely varying educational conceptions, in a state of continuous instability, and 
therefore reduced to a mere administrative mechanism without power of 
initiative relative to its immediate needs and without sufficient social influence 
to realize its true aims. To remedy these evils and to fill these gaps is one of 
the purposes of this law, in which the attempt has been made to include only 
that which ought to be general and permanent. The primary aim of secondary 
education should be to spread education among the towns and cities in such a 
way that in all the country there shall be trained, educated citizens fitted to 
play their part in the future civilization of the country. Preparatory instruc- 
tion has therefore been kept under the control of the universities, which will 
fix their courses of study, their duration, and their extension both general and 
special. Both the plans of the preparatory courses, as well as those of the 
.professions taught in the faculties of the university, have been projected along 
the lines already mentioned. The programs of the normal schools have been 
formulated in accordance with the technical ideas which should distinguish 
them, separating the general studies from those properly called pedagogical or 
professional, arranging them so that the former shall precede and the latter be 
intensified toward the end of the course. 

As regards practical subjects of instruction, the project outlines only the 
general features according to which they must be taught. Instruction will be 
imparted in accordance with the necessities of the immediate field of each 
school, with special regard to natural production, commerce, industries, and 
aptitudes of the population, all with the purpose of adjusting anew the activi- 
ties of the Argentine youth, which has hitherto been by preference inclined 
toward the more speculative studies rather than those of practical and of imme- 
diate application. It is left to the authorities of technical education to prepare 
plans and courses of study adapted to each class of institutions. 

Enrollment in all schools has been made absolutely free, a logical consequence 
of compulsory education, which has as yet never been effective, but which is 
an indispensible condition to placing all upon the same plane of equality, a 
thing inherent in the principles of republican institutions. 



22 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

The Goverment considers that the power wielded by the nation to spread 
primary education in the Provinces is so ample, in the form established by this 
projected law, that the regulations in force concerning financial subventions 
are without reason or justification. Once the Provinces have complied with 
the duty imposed upon them by the constitution in this regard up to the limit 
of their capacity the accompanying responsibility of the Federal Government 
will disappear. 

The executive, knowing the great value of the teaching profession in the gen- 
eral concert of human activities, seeks every means to establish and dignify 
the career of teacher, making it a real profession surrounded by all the honors 
and all the public considerations which it can legitimately claim. It is there- 
fore sought in the reform to fix proper conditions for different categories of 
teachers, as well as a scale of salaries, and proportional and periodic increase, 
thus guaranteeing the stability of the profession and assuring it an honorable 
and tranquil retirement. With such aims in view for the retirement of sec- 
ondary teachers, the executive has believed it equitable to establish similar 
lines of financial aid for pensions and for increase of salaries as those offered 
to the teachers of primary education. 



\, 



SECONDARY EDUCATION. 



Reference has been made to the establishment of intermediate 
schools, at first uniform, later differentiated, substituted for the 
former fifth and sixth years of the primary school and intended to 
bridge the chasm between the primary and the secondary schools. 
This marked a further innovation, in that secondary education had 
always been left in Argentina to the Provinces, the State nationally 
exercising only a nominal oversight of this division. For financial 
reasons, as well as because of the necessity of giving uniformity to 
a type so widely scattered, the intermediate school was from the very 
first regarded as national in scope. It may be likened in many 
respects to the junior high school of American cities. It was designed 
to give instruction of a general and cultural nature in languages, 
history, geography, and mathematics, combined with experimental 
studies in the elements of physical and natural science. Much earlier 
entrance, its advocates claimed, would thus be possible upon subjects 
of vocational and technical character, which should test the nascent 
abilities and aptitudes of the pupil. Especial attention was to be 
given woodworking, typewriting, stenography, linotyping, decora- 
tive design, photography, and special arts and crafts favored by 
local conditions. 

This experiment, though marking an advance in educational 
methods, was unsuccessful, and after a year of existence such schools 
were discontinued. They did, however, affect instruction in secondary 
education, leaving their impress in the radical requirement of early 
specialization after the fifth and sixth higher primary grades. 

The educational policy of Argentina thus returned to its tra- 
ditional status; and secondary education still centers around the 
37 colegios nacionales, institutions for boys of 10 to 14 years of age. 



AKGENTINA. 23 

which admit those with leaving certificates from the fifth and sixth 
grades of the higher primary schools, and by revisal of 1911 offer 
courses arranged by fourfold division of subjects into the physical- 
mathematical, the chemical-biological, the historical-geographical, 
and the literary-philosophical groups. A decree of the National 
Council dated February, 1916, made the certificate of sixth grade of 
the public school obligatory for admission to the colegio. This was 
regarded as going far toward settling two fundamental difficulties — 
the first, the long desired abolition of the entrance examination, as 
discredited by experience and prejudicial to secondary training, 
and the second, the official recognition of the compulsory attendance 
law for children of 6 to 14 years. 

Among the new subjects assigned for the colegios is the study of 
Italian, now restored after being abolished by previous decree. In 
accordance with this requirement, a course in this language has been 
instituted in the normal schools for the preparation of teachers. 

The close connection of the interests of the colegio nacionale with 
the university is brought out in the report of the rector of the 
National University of Buenos Aires for 1916. It is of significance 
as striking out new lines in what had always been a conservative 
division, and carried weight in the fluid state of public opinion on 
education which prevailed just at that time. 

Taking up the instructional aspect of secondary education, and 
the claims put forward by zealous partisans of the opposing views 
that the colegios should prepare either for higher studies or for 
practical life, but not for both, he urged legal provisions for both 
forms of training to supply the demand felt in all modern states for 
men of thought as well as efficiency in action. In the light of this 
demand all wrangling as to programs of study could only be to the 
damage of the State. Since the Argentine colegios half a century 
ago were modeled after the French lycees, with their emphasis upon 
the cultural studies, the world had moved far, economically and so- 
cially, and sane modifications in secondary education now clamored 
for recognition. 

On the side of administration the peculiar question for Argentina, 
the land of great distances and many climates and productions, was 
whether the best organization for secondary instruction was the 
concentration of power in the hands of a council or of the minister 
of public instruction, or more or less complete autonomy to be 
granted to the individual institution. In either case the fixed prin- 
ciple was to be accepted that the universities were directly con- 
cerned in the discipline and studies of the students they were to 
receive, and that they should therefore have the right of intervening 
in matters of organization and studies of the colegios. 



24 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

A just decentralization of the colegios could be easily realized 
and would bring such beneficial results as : (1) More direct and imme- 
diate action of the authorities; (2) closer articulation of the colegios 
with the universities in the matter of studies for preparation for 
the latter; (3) formation of intellectual groups that would be 
encouraged to take root permanently in the Provinces, thus avoid- 
ing the wholesale migration of the directing classes to the capital; 
(4) ease of reform, as contrasted with the present system, wherein 
every change in the program of studies was a disturbance whose 
utility was not always certain; (5) the best selection, so far as 
possible, of the personal directive staff of the colegios, as the men 
in higher education would be familiar with the problems of sec- 
ondary instruction; (6) economy of administrative expense; (7) 
the possibility of transforming certain of the colegios into schools 
of arts, trades, and industries in which general instruction, con- 
tinuing the primary, might be combined with,' the special and 
technical preparation so much needed for the material well-being 
of the several regions of the Republic. 

In the projected law of public instruction, introduced in August, 
1918, it is provided that all matters relating to secondary education 
shall be under the authority of the national universities, with full 
power to regulate content of courses, curricula, etc. This is mani- 
festly a step suggested by the traditional system of Spain, in which 
the standard secondary schools (institutos) are arranged according 
to university districts and are governed by university rector and 
council. Its wisdom and advisability for a country of the Western 
Hemisphere have been variously considered. 

TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 

By the projected law of August, 1918, a National Board of Tech- 
nical Education is to be established to ascertain the progress of 
this branch of education in other countries, to adapt whatever may 
be possible to the conditions and needs of Argentina, to foster 
technical instruction in the national schools, and to keep in touch 
with its progress throughout the world. 

NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING. 

The sequence of studies prescribed for pupils of the normal school 
according to the decree of March, 1916, is also worthy of notice. 
Immediately following, and based upon the intermediate schools 
which, as described above, were discarded after trial, the normal 
school required four years for the teachers' diploma, after which 
the student might proceed to higher studies for the degree of 



AKGENTINA. 25 

teacher of modern languages in two years or that of teacher 
of languages in normal school in three years, or that of teacher 
of philosophy in any institution in six years. A commend- 
able gain of one year in each of these was effected, and this 
feature is to be embodied in the new provisions now under con- 
sideration. In addition, the new project of educational law outlines 
a teacher's course of four years, clearly differentiating between the 
general or cultural and the pedagogical or professional courses. 
The former are assigned to the first three years as required; the 
latter are reserved for the last year, constituting an intensive cur- 
riculum of pedagogical history and methods and practice teaching 
in the required annexed practice school. The completion (1918) of 
the Normal School Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, named in honor of 
the founder of popular education in South America, is to be noted. 
This school, capable of accommodating 1,000 pupils and equipped 
with the most modern apparatus, is worthy of comparison with 
the finest schools in the other countries educationally most advanced. 

HIGHER EDUCATION. 

With the provision incorporated in the projected law, by which 
control of national secondary education is vested in the universities, 
the latter will touch national education much more intimately than 
ever before. The universities of Argentina are those of Buenos 
Aires, Cordoba, and La Plata, which are national, and those of 
Santa Fe and Tucuman, which are provincial but will soon be na- 
tionalized. In 1917 there was a growing feeling in university circles 
in favor of decentralization, with greater degree of autonomy for 
each university. The report of the rector of the university of 
Buenos Aires for 1917 was of interest as showing the effect of this 
upon the colegios as well as the universities. How far this has been 
checked by the projected provision to intrust secondary education 
to universities can not be learned. 

The unrest among the student bodies in the institutions of higher 
education has constituted perhaps the most remarkable feature of 
the educational history of the past year. In Buenos Aires reform 
was demanded in the statutes under which the university was gov- 
erned, and the adoption of methods in conformity with new tenden- 
cies in university instruction. The students demanded especially the 
right to vote for the election of the authorities. Satisfactory agree- 
ment was reached, and the university, after several days of suspen- 
sion of classes and demonstrations on the part of the student body, 
resumed instruction, which was uninterrupted for the rest of the 
year. At the University of Cordoba the conflict between the stu- 
dents and the authorities assumed more serious proportions. Regu- 
134132°— 20 i 



26 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

Irtr work was suspended, the efforts of the mediator appointed by 
the National Government to hear the claims of the student body and 
to decide upon the just and practical course for the university author- 
ities to adopt were unsatisfactory to the complainants, and the au- 
thority of the minister of public instruction was invoked. Upon 
investigation the latter official advocated in his report to the execu- 
tive a complete reorganization of the university in its statutes, regu- 
lations, acts of discipline, and staff of professors. These changes 
were ratified by the executive and were practically embodied in the 
project of the law submitted to the Congress in those sections per- 
taining to university education. In the other three universities, 
those of La Plata, Tucuman, and Santa Fe, the disturbances which 
impeded the prosecution of the regular routine of studies were com- 
paratively insignificant, though the spirit of unrest was marked and 
many of the reforms and changes secured in the two leading univer- 
sities were readily accepted. 

The growth of the so-called student centers (centros estudiantiles) 
has been a feature of higher education during the past two years. 
These organizations have come to be representative of student life 
and of the student point of view, and have therefore gained much 
importance in the eyes of the authorities. They are organized ac- 
cording to departments of studies, such as the centers of medical 
and dental students, of engineering students, of political science stu- 
dents, of students of architecture, and of law. Each numbers from 
100 to 500 members. They are grouped as a whole into the Univer- 
sity Federation of Buenos Aires, in which each is represented by 
delegates, and which is regarded as the mouthpiece of all univer- 
sity students in the metropolis. 

Plans are already under way by the executive council of the Uni- 
versity of Buenos Aires for the celebration of the first centenary of 
its foundation, which will occur in October, 1921. Invitations have 
been extended to the institutions of higher education in all countries 
of the world to designate and send representatives. Though the 
actual building of the ancient colegio nacional, in which the univer- 
sity began its operation, has been materially changed, yet the pres- 
ent building occupies the same site, and it has been decided to hold 
the centennial celebration in it. 

Of interest is the projected foundation of a popular unh T ersity 
at Buenos Aires, constituted along industrial lines and frankly de- 
signed to counteract the technical and industrial influence of North 
American universities in South American countries. 

A survey of educational progress in Argentina may fittingly con- 
clude with mention of the annual American Congress of Education 
and Commercial Extension, held in Montevideo in January, 1919, 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN BKAZIL. 27 

in which representatives of all the Latin-American countries par- 
ticipated, and those of Argentina, from her economic and educational 
leadership, were most prominent. The proceedings of the congress 
will be discussed in the chapter on Uruguay. 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL. 

Educational activity in Brazil has been most marked in the field 
of vocational education. A special commission, appointed by the 
Director General of Public Instruction, consisting of five experienced 
teachers in subjects of this nature, was instructed to formulate 
courses for the State schools which were to be established by law in 
the Federal District. They were to serve as models for subsequent 
schools of the same character in the several States and Territories. 
The commission, of which Senhor Coryntho da Fonseca was the 
spokesman, after several months of conference and personal visits of 
inspection to the vocational schools already existent in the several 
centers, especially in Sao Paulo, and after hearing reports from active 
teachers in the subjects, presented its report in March, 1919. It was 
approved by the Vice President, serving ad interim for the Presi- 
dent, and was recommended by him to be put into actual operation 
pending its formal enactment into law by the Congress. 

The report as finally presented rested upon four main considera- 
tions : 

1. The State, in the field of instruction, has primarily an educa- 
tional function and only secondarily a vocational one. Courses in 
shop training, designed to awake and develop an aptitude in the 
pupil for a particular industry, must of course enter into any well- 
rounded scheme of education. This in turn must be designed to 
promote a general and not a specialized technical education which 
will introduce both sexes to industrial and commercial life. For 
practical reasons of expense, if for no other, the State should not 
be expected to prepare pupils for specialized vocations. 

2. The task of the commission being to deal with the branches of 
vocational training best adapted to give the pupil a broad outlook 
upon general industrial activities, the commission judged it best to 
confine its recommendations to manual work of construction in wood, 
metal, and plastic material. In methods as well as content of in- 
struction it is emphasized that such work must proceed along the 
lines of teaching by example. In such teaching much that is old 
and fundamental must be stressed by way of throwing light upon the 
elements of the training that are common to all branches of manual 
arts. 



28 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

3. In its decision to urge a general attitude toward industrial train- 
ing rather than specialized methods peculiar to one branch, the com- 
mission was confirmed by the testimony of all except one of the di- 
rectors of the vocational institutions in Brazil. Only one advocated 
specialized instruction. Written representations of the faculties of 
the vocational schools Alvaro Baptista, and Souza Aguiar, in Eio, 
further confirmed this view. 

4. The results of vocational instruction in Brazil as actually ob- 
served within the last few years convinced the commission — ■ 

(a) That unspecialized training best provided the foundations for 
good citizenship as well as industrial training. 

(b) That by this training the latent technical aptitudes of the 
student were more effectively revealed and developed, as shown by 
steady increase in salaries of the graduates, than was the case with the 
apprentices who had been trained exclusively in one line. 

(c) That the superior adaptation of the graduates of the general 
vocational school had been shown by tables giving information as to 
their progress in skill and value to their employers. These tables 
were naturally incomplete, but their general drift was undeniable. 

(d) That the chief cause of the poor attendance upon the voca- 
tional instruction for boys is the prevalent idea that the vocational 
school is an index of lower social standing, enrolling only those boys 
that can not obtain any other means of education. Thus the voca- 
tional school is sharply differentiated socially from other types of 
schools. It suffers from being regarded as preeminently the school 
to train workmen. The commission had in mind the purpose of pre- 
paring public sentiment for the passing of this traditional prejudice 
when it attempted to inspire a just estimate of manual work in the 
public mind and to organize such courses as would adequately carry 
out this idea. 

(e) That the vocational school must be established as a direct con- 
tinuation of the primary school, ministering to the innate tendency 
in the child to realize things with his own hands ; that thus the tra- 
ditional and depressing prejudice mentioned would be counteracted, 
as time would not be given for it to intervene in the child's mind. 
The workshop, thus articulated with general training, would come to 
be the fulfillment of an aspiration, inculcating as well the love of 
work and respect for it. 

(/) That the success of the projected schools depends largely 
upon the cooperation of the industrial firms of Brazil, which should 
be appealed to for their sympathy and for the encouragement of 
their adolescent employees to attend these schools; that the grant- 
ing of daylight hours to employees to attend such schools, as has 
been done in England and France, with the consequent improve- 



VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN BKAZIL. 29 

ment in the physical and mental condition of the pupils, is a step 
to be commended to all employers as patriotic citizens. 

The salient provisions of the report of the commission are as 
follows : 

Aetice 1. The technical and vocational instruction maintained by the pre- 
fecture of the Federal District has for its aim to complete the primary ele- 
mentary instruction by means of a general technical education leading the 
youth of both sexes preferably to industrial and commercial activities. 

Art. 2. Technical and vocational instruction shall be given in the fol- 
lowing types of schools : 

(a) Primary vocational schools. 

(&) Secondary vocational institutes. 

(c) Secondary agricultural schools.. 

(d) Vocational finishing courses. 

(e) Normal school of arts and crafts. 

Types (a), (eZ), and (e) shall be day schools exclusively; types (6) and (c) 
shall offer boarding accommodations for pupils from distance. 

Aet. 3. In schools of types (a) and (d)' instruction shall be imparted 
predominantly in the recitation rooms. 

Art. 4. The courses of the primary vocational school for boys shall include 
the following subjects : 

(a) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary schools, 
with fuller development of the studies of physics, chemistry, natural history, 
hygiene, and mathematics. 

(Z>) Modeling and free-hand and mechanical drawing. 

Art. 5. The courses of the primary vocational school for girls shall include : 

(a) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary schools, 
with fuller development of the studies of hygiene and domestic economy. 

(&) Modeling and free-hand drawing. 

Aet. 6. The subjects of the vocational finishing courses shall include : 

(a) In the commercial course, Portuguese and civic instruction, commer- 
cial geography, French and one other modern language, English or German, 
to be chosen by the pupil, commercial correspondence and accounting, type- 
writing, stenography, and arithmetic. 

(&) In the industrial course, Portuguese and civic instruction, arithmetic, 
and geography, elements of applied physics, chemistry, and natural history, 
accounting as related to the particular vocation selected by the pupil, free- 
hand and mechanical drawing. 

Aet. 7. The vocational finishing courses are designed primarily for young- 
men already employed in industry and commerce, who seek to improve their 
vocational knowledge. 

Aet. 8. The two types of vocational finishing schools may be taught conjointly 
in the same building. 

Aet. 9. Teachers and assistants imparting instruction shall be appointed as 
follows : 

(a) There shall be a teacher and so many assistants for each branch as 
shall be made necessary by the attendance. 

(&) For the instruction in technical accounting related to each vocation 
there shall be employed special teachers only where 15 or more students are 
enrolled for each course, and they shall receive salaries only when actually 
teaching. The same teachers shall be in charge of the various related branches 
of technical instruction in the shops. 



30 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

Art. 10. The courses in the secondary vocational institutes for boys shall 
include — 

(a) The elementary and middle instruction for pupils who have not had them. 

(b) Physical exercises and military drill. 

(c) Vocal and instrumental music. 

Art. 11. The courses in the vocational institutes for girls shall include — 

(a) Primary instruction for such pupils as have not had it. 

(&) Vocational drawing and modeling. 

In the vocational institutes the elementary primary instruction shall be fol- 
lowed by an intensive course in manual arts, such as sloyd, wood carving, and 
weaving in straw, vine, and bamboo. 

Art. 12. The primary vocational schools shall also offer a commercial course 
consisting of the following subjects : 

(a) Commercial correspondence and accounting. 

(ft) Typewriting and stenography. 

(e) French and one other modern language, English or German. 

Art. 13. Instruction in the workshops of vocational schools for boys shall 
be given first in a general compulsory course of three years, during which the 
pupil shall in turn be trained in the workshops in cold and molten metals, in- 
cluding foundry work and wrought-iron work. The pupil shall then be allowed 
to specialize in any workshop or section at his choice. The pupils of the voca- 
tional institutes for boys shall likewise take a compulsory course in horticulture 
and kindred subjects. 

Art. 14. The agricultural schools and the vocational institutes shall require 
attendance on the courses of civil training and agronomy, with optional speciali- 
zation in any line selected when the general course is completed. 

Art. 15. In the vocational schools and institutes for girls there shall be a 
compulsory general course upon the following practical subjects : Cooking, 
laundering, ironing and starching, housekeeping, sewing and dressmaking. 
Along with this general course the pupils shall attend certain vocational courses 
chosen by themselves from sewing, lace making, and embroidery, artificial-flower 
work, etc. 

Art. 16. For admission to the schools of vocational instruction the following 
shall be the legal requirements as to age: 

(a) For vocational and agricultural schools, minimum age 13, maximum 21. 

(&) For the vocational institutes for boys, minimum age 10, maximum 13. 

(c) For the vocational institutes for girls, minimum age 7, maximum 13. 

(d) For the normal school of arts and trades, minimum age 14, maximum 25. 

(e) For the vocational finishing courses, minimum age 13. 

Art. 17. For matriculation in the vocational and agricultural schools and the 
finishing courses the candidates shall submit to an examination upon the sub- 
jects taught in the middle course of the primary school. In the commercial 
courses of the finishing schools, in the girls' schools, and in the normal school 
of arts and trades, the entrance examination shall be upon the subjects of the 
final examination of the primary schools. 

Art. 18. The school year in the entire system of vocational instruction, with 
the exception of agricultural schools, shall begin March 1 and close November 
30. The period from December 1 to December 24 shall be devoted to examina- 
tions and to school exhibitions. In the agricultural schools, because of their 
nature, the pupils shall have 60 days of annual vacation granted to them in 
groups by the director in accordance with the demands of the agricultural sea- 
sons and labors. 

Art. 19. The courses of the primary vocational schools, of the institutes, and 
of the finishing courses shall be divided into periods of 4 to 5 years ; the finish- 



CHILE. 31 

ing courses into periods of three years ; and the commercial course of the 
schools for girls into a period of two years. 

Art. 24. The officials of inspection of technical and vocational instruction 
shall draw up annual statistics of attendance and of the results of the voca- 
tional instruction upon the bases of data furnished by the directors of the sev- 
eral schools and, so far as possible, by employers and by the former pupils 
who have themselves left the schools. These statistics shall relate to the 
following topics : 

(a) Number of pupils placed, with indication of the establishments where 
they are employed. 

(&) Initial salary obtained by them as related to the period of schooling. 

(c) Technical aptitude revealed by former pupils and their capacity of 
adaptation to the various industrial works. 

(d) Progress of increase in salary of former pupils. 

(e) All available information as to individual former pupils with regard to 
the advantages or disadvantages of their schooling in the decision of economic 
life, and their success in it. 

Art. 25. All posts of assistants and substitutes in the vocational system shall 
be filled by competitive examinations. 

(a) For the assistant in drawing in the vocational schools in institutes for 
boys, the examination shall be tests in drawing, in artistic training, and in 
pedagogical fitness. 

(&) For the filling of the same post in the vocational schools and institutes 
for girls the examination shall be tests in writing at dictation, in decorative 
composition, in embroidery and lacework, and in pedagogical fitness. 

(c)The competitive test for filling the post of substitutes in shopwork shall 
be upon vocational design of an assigned theme for shopwork and the execution 
of the same. 

Art. 26. The teachers in vocational instruction shall be named by means of 
promotion of the assistants and substitutes. 

Art. 27. There shall be a substitute for every group of 20 pupils in shop- 
work, and an assistant for every class of 30 pupils. 

Art. 28. When any primary school is transformed into a vocational school 
there shall be annexed the elementary primary course in which shall be taught 
intensively the manual arts prescribed for the elementary instruction of the 
institutes, but the pupils shall attend the shopwork of the vocational courses 
only when they have completed the work of the middle course and attained the 
age of 13 years. 



EDUCATION IN CHILE. 

PRELIMINARY. 

The last two years have seen in Chile a distinct gathering up of 
the threads of educational purpose. The feeling of dissatisfaction 
with the primary school system, for many years inarticulate, has 
found a voice, and all signs point to Chile's finally securing a mod- 
ernized system of public instruction. The head and front of the 
indictment drawn by national students of education has been the 
complete Germanization of the system through the employment of a 
considerable number of German educational experts during the de- 



32 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

cade from 1901 to 1914. The climax came in the revelations of the 
propagandist activities of the German educators brought out at the 
meeting of the National Educational Association in 1917. 

Financial support of public instruction in Chile has never been 
stinted, so far as its existent state was concerned. As merely one 
item may be adduced the fact that in March, 1916, the Congress 
authorized the President to devote to public instruction for specific 
aims such as the building and remodeling of schoolhouses, $4,000,000 
annually for 10 years, through the medium of the Central Council of 
Education, in which was vested the discretion as to methods and 
objects of the expenditure. In 1918 the budget was voted by the 
Congress of $35,450,000 for public instruction, as against that of 
$32,373,404 for 1917. So that the authorities of the Government 
must justly be credited with a practical interest in education which 
encourages teachers and other active Avorkers in their efforts toward 
greater efficiency. 

In 1917 there had been increased discussion of matters educa- 
tional; and in June of that year President Sanfuentes in his mes- 
sage showed that the time had come to impress on the national sys- 
tem of public instruction a more practical stamp, making it adequate 
to the needs of everyday life and the special conditions of the coun- 
try. Along with this he urged the specialization of secondary educa- 
tion as, just then, the urgent and opportune point of attack for the 
development of Chile's scientific and industrial possibilities. ^ 

This message was followed by action of the Congress which clearly 
showed the traditional line of cleavage long prevailing in Chile's 
social and political system. The demand for some form of modernized 
public instruction could no longer be repressed; and a conservative 
deputy introduced the project of a law to insert in the constitu- 
tion a provision for compulsory primary schooling and compulsory 
religious instruction, the only modification of the latter being the 
concession to the parent to choose the forms and means of such in- 
struction. The radical party was not slow in countering with a 
project adopting the feature of compulsory attendance but decen- 
tralizing and completely secularizing the existing system. The lat- 
ter proposal, now made for the first time in the history of Chilean 
legislation, was especially bold, as Chile has never done away with the 
essentially religious tone of her education. She retains representa- 
tives of the State church on her National Council of Education, 
freely recognizes parochial primary schools, and has her secondary 
schools largely managed by religious instructors and under distinc- 
tively religious auspices. 

The compromise bill formulated by a specially appointed commis- 
sion of the Congress sought to satisfy both extremes. It vested su- 



CHILE. 33 

preme administrative authority in educational matters in a council 
of 18, sitting in Santiago, presided over by the Minister of Justice 
and Instruction; but it allowed 11 of the members to be named by 
the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Re- 
public. This feature was severely criticized by the liberals and by 
the National Educational Association as still keeping educational au- 
thority in the hands of politicians, not intrusting it to men really 
interested in education, and making it possible to block all educa- 
tional progress whenever desired. 

The bill made four years' attendance in primary schools, private 
or public, compulsory for all children between 7 and 13, and required 
all reaching the latter age without completing the prescribed course 
to continue until 15. Poverty could not be pleaded in excuse, as 
grants by the State were specified and graduated in amounts accord- 
ing to need. Exemption from religious instruction was allowed upon 
written application of the parent or upon certification of the local 
junta, another feature opposed by the National Educational Associa- 
tion on the ground that the junta's powers could never be so ampli- 
fied legally. Programs of study and schedules should be under the 
authority of the inspector general of primary instruction. Primary 
instruction was to be imparted to complete illiterates in schools called 
supplementary, managed independently of existing primary schools, 
and to partial illiterates in schools called complementary, conducted 
in conjunction with existent primary schools. 

The bill, as outlined above, encountered opposition from many 
sources, and still remains unenacted. Pending its passage, the 
Minister of Public Instruction, by virtue of the power vested in him, 
issued in 1918 a decree organizing primary education in three grades 
of two years each, continued by one grade of vocational education 
of from one to three years. Attendance is not specifically compulsory, 
though the local junta has power so to declare it in the schools of its 
jurisdiction. The requirements as to qualifications of a primary 
teacher are made more rigorous ; he must be a citizen of Chile, of good 
character, not less than 18 nor more than 40 years of age at the time 
of appointment, and a graduate of a Government normal school, or 
holding a degree of a Chilean or recognized foreign institution. 

ILLITERACY. 

The problem of illiteracy in Chile is a serious one, the estimated 
figures for 1917 showing 959,061 illiterates out of a total population 
of 3,249,279. Since the year 1900 the struggle against it has grown in 
vigor. The National Educational Association has shown especial 
efficiency, and has worked through committees having the following 
phases in charge: Compulsory school attendance, the legal require- 



34 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

ments, condition of the schools and the teaching force, school revenues, 
school buildings and sanitation, and special education. 

This steady pressure prepared public sentiment for the leadership 
of the most influential agency ever invoked in the fight against illiter- 
acy, viz, the conferences organized by the powerful newspaper 
El Mercuric Under its auspices these conferences were held in a 
3-days' series in July, 1917, and were attended and participated in 
by men and women identified with every phase of national educa- 
tion. The following topics were the salient ones of those discussed: 

1. Comparative study of illiteracy statistics in various countries. 

2. Means of combating illiteracy in leading nations. 

3. Practicable means of action in Chile. 

4. Means of contribution, and proportion in which the State, the 

municipal authorities, and the Provinces may contribute to 
the budget necessary. 

5. Cooperation of private initiative. 

6. Means of making school attendance compulsory. 

7. Eegulation of child labor. 

8. Eeforms necessary in actual plans of study and in classifica- 

tion of schools. 

9. Necessity and practical means of giving the schools a more 

Nationalistic character. 

10. Minimum of knowledge to be required by compulsory attend- 

ance law. 

11. Place of night schools, Sunday schools, and traveling schools, 

in the struggle against illiteracy. 

While no action of a legal character resulted from these confer- 
ences, yet the impetus given to the cause was powerful, and had 
weight in bringing about the decree and the projected law already 
outlined. Such a move, combining at once social and economic as 
well as educational characteristics, seeking to bring public opinion 
to bear on the solution of a problem underlying the life of a nation, 
and launched by a newspaper, is unique in the history of education. 

The Territory of Magellanes has shown itself remarkably efficient 
in handling the problem of illiteracy. It is the southernmost area of 
the country, and little favored by nature, being a long strip of 
barren and rocky coast, with a climate singularly bleak and un- 
inviting. Its industries are based exclusively upon its mineral re- 
sources; and its population, though intelligent, is very sparse. By 
the census of 1917, its percentage of illiteracy was 20; according 
to the estimate of the author of a study of the Territory, published 
in the Anales de la Universidad, April, 1918, this has been reduced 
to 7 per cent. Credit is largely due the Society of Popular Instruc- 
tion, a private organization, established in 1911, which offers free 



CHILE. 35 

instruction to pupils of all ages. In spite of the prevailing in- 
clemency of the climate, the sessions of its day and night schools 
are excellently attended. The system is centralized in Punta 
Arenas. 

-» PRIMARY EDUCATION. 

Unlike Argentina and Brazil, primary public education has al- 
ways been left in the hands of the central national government, the 
individual Province having control of financial outlay and the con- 
struction of school buildings, and this only when requirements of 
the national law are fulfilled. Uniform programs of study and 
schedules of hours are enforced throughout the nation. But condi- 
tions of scarcity of materials and labor render it impossible to keep 
many of the old buildings in repair. The tendency long criticized 
by the Association of Teachers, to cram school buildings into the half 
dozen larger centers, seems in a fair way to be checked. 1 

This new order of things is most plainly seen in the attention 
paid to rural schools, which have predominated in the number built 
since 1916. The Government has instructed the committee on public 
works and the department of primary instruction to develop a plan 
of building uniform types of rural school. The expenses are to be 
borne out of the fund just mentioned. Three types are contem- 
plated, with a capacity of 80, 160, and 400 pupils respectively, sol- 
idly constructed, conforming strictly to all modern demands of sani- 
tation, lighting, and heating. In many places the North American 
principle of consolidation of schools has been applied, to the dis- 
tinct improvement of attendance and instruction, 200 small and 
struggling schools having been abolished and 100 annexed to others 
more centrally situated. With these gains, however, the crying 
need in Chile is acknowledged to be more schools. It is estimated 
that 10,000 elementary schools are yet needed for her approxi- 
mately 750,000 children, of whom slightly less than 400,000 are in 
the schools of this grade, and 50,000 in private parochial schools. 
All educational thinkers are agreed that the situation calls for legal 
compulsory attendance on primary instruction, rigidly enforced. 

SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

Secondary education in Chile is organized in three grades: (1) 
National high schools; (2) liceos of the second class, and (3) com- 
plete liceos of the first class. 

(1) The high schools are a development of the last few years, and 
are situated only in the larger centers. They number 30 for boys 

1 Criticism has been freely expressed in the public press of the use of a disproportion- 
ately large part of the primary school fund voted by the Congress for the use of the 
executive. 



36 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

and 12 for girls, enrolling less than 12,000 pupils, and are generally 
little more than higher elementary schools. They are almost ex- 
clusively technical, and do not prepare the pupil for advanced 
study. 

(2) The liceos of the second class (sometimes called colegios), of 
which about 100 exist in the Provinces and Territories, offer courses 
covering three years in the elementary subjects of instruction com- 
mon to scientific and literary groups. 

(3) The liceos of the first class, numbering 40" for boys and 31 
for girls, and offering the full course of six years, are representa- 
tive of the best in secondary education in Latin- America. Those 
for boys, following the tradition of the Spanish system for corre- 
sponding schools, are administered by the University of Chile; 
those for girls, by the Minister of Public Instruction and the National 
Council. The practical and scientific wave which swept over this 
division of education in 1915 caused the reinforcement of physical 
and chemical teaching. Spanish, history and geography, religion 
(optional), French, mathematics, natural sciences, gymnastics and 
singing, and manual training run through all six years of the course ; 
English (or German or Italian), philosophy, civics, penmanship and 
drawing, mechanical drawing (optional), extend through varying 
numbers of years. Students of secondary education are struck with 
the excessive number of hours required weekly, the minimum being 
29 for the first year and the maximum 33 for each of the last three 
years. 

The essential purpose of the liceo of the first class is to prepare 
for the university, or for the professions; and national scholarships 
are granted, including maintenance at the hostels, or annexed board- 
ing halls which were established five years ago. 

The system of secondary education has long been criticized by 
Chilean educational thinkers as being too largely mental and literary, 
and as paying little, if any, attention to the physical and moral. The 
attempt to organize sports and physical exercises in secondary edu- 
cation has met far less encouragement than in other South American 
countries. 

By decree of May, 1917, classes for illiterate girls over 7 years 
old were annexed to liceos for girls, the ministry basing the number 
to be admitted upon the attendance of the year previous. This 
was stoutly opposed by the National Educational Association as 
being a confusion of classification, a violation of the continuity 
of the educational system, and an evasion of the palpable duty of 
the school authorities, which should press the Government to estab- 
lish fitting and proper schools for such illiterate girls. 

The Government has appointed a commission of prominent men 
for the study of reforms necessary and advisable for programs of 



CHILE. 37 

secondary education for girls. As matters stand, the same programs 
of study are set for both boys and girls, a traditional arrangement 
the disadvantages of which are coming fully to be recognized. 

Despite unfavorable and antiquated programs of studies, the Prov- 
ince of Nuble has made noteworthy progress in female secondary 
education. In Chilian, its capital, are conducted four liceos, three 
of which are for girls. Ambitious courses in the classics, social 
sciences, and rudimentary science are offered. One of them, the In- 
stituto Pedagogico, founded in 1912, exercises far-reaching influence 
over the social, moral, and artistic conditions of the Province. The 
American Liceo, a private institution, conducted by teachers from 
the United States, devotes especial attention to the teaching of 
English, colloquial and literary, and also gives instruction generally 
along thoroughly modern high-school lines. 

TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 

Chile's system of training teachers is distinctively eclectic, borrow- 
ing, as it has done, from France, Sweden, Germany, and the United 
States. Before 1870 French influence predominated, the great Ar- 
gentine educator, Sarmiento, himself a pupil of the school of Saint- 
Simon, having founded the first normal school in 1842 while in 
exile from the tyranny of the dictator Eosas. German influence 
became pronounced about 1880, when that nation began to supply 
men and women teachers in the normals and as instructors in all 
grades of education. Since 25 years ago the tide began to turn 
toward North American influence, especially of the type of edu- 
cation developed in the Northwestern States. The Chilean ideal 
is a judicious combination of (1) an institution for the training of 
teachers for public schools who shall have adequate culture, special- 
ized training, manual skill, and theoretical and practical knowledge 
of modern subjects, and (2) an institution for training in social rela- 
tions and habits, exercising steady influence on the social environ- 
ment of the school by means of popular courses and conferences, 
and participation in popular movements. 

The full course in the 16 training colleges for teachers covers 
five years, of which the first three are devoted to general education 
and the last two to professional training. The course for the fifth 
year is essentially professional, consisting of pedagogy (history, 
methodology, and practice teaching) , 17 hours weekly ; Spanish, 1 
hour; English or French or German, 4 hours; civics and economics, 
2 hours; hygiene, 2 hours; horticulture or metallography, 2 hours; 
drawing, 1 hour ; manual arts, 2 hours ; music, 1 hour ; physical edu- 
cation, 3 hours. All expenses are defrayed, in return for which the 
pupil is pledged to teach for seven years in the national schools. 



38 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

The actual method of instruction is along German lines. Object 
lessons, those in natural history and history and geography have all 
impressed recent foreign visitors as essentially Herbartian. Per- 
haps in no other country of the world, since the well-drilled German 
schools fell into chaos, is the influence of the normal schools upon the 
system and method of public instruction more powerful than in 
Chile. Indeed, this potent influence has overleaped the boundaries 
of Chile proper and affected every country of Latin America. A 
supreme example is the influence of the Instituto Pedagogico, the 
best known of Chilean normal schools, founded in 1909, with pre- 
dominatingly German faculty, which has developed into a type of 
higher normal school with a colegio annexed, emphasizing practice 
teaching with subsequent criticism and courses of general pedagogy 
and methodology in every subject. Its certificates rank highest in 
the secondary and normal education of the capital city ; students are 
attracted to it from the other Latin- American States, and return 
home to reorganize education there along its lines. Its boast is that 
it inspired the establishment, of the Instituto Nacional at Buenos 
Aires. 

Scandinavian and Belgian influences are at work m the Instituto 
de Profesores Especiales. Established in 1906, it was definitely re- 
organized in 1910 and installed in the building especially constructed 
for it. Of its 300 pupils 200 are women, and the majority of both 
men and women are active teachers in the schools of the capital. It 
offers courses common to all the specialized sections, such as psy- 
chology, French, pedagogy, civics, and school legislation, and in- 
cludes five sections, fundamental to its organization: Physical edu- 
cation, manual arts, drawing and penmanship, domestic economy, 
and vocal music. For the convenience of teachers, instruction is 
given from 7 to 9 a. m. and from 4 to 8 p. m. 

The last few years have seen wide extension of the demand for 
rural normal schools, and many critics of the existent schools have 
urged that they follow those of the State of Wisconsin as a model. The 
essential solidarity of educational aims of the South American repub- 
lics is shown by the fact that Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia during 
the same period drew their inspiration from the same North Amer- 
ican source. 

The decree already mentioned under the head of primary educa- 
tion emphasizes the duty of the normal schools to prepare free of 
all expense primary teachers for any of the three grades of in- 
struction. Each normal school is also required to have annexed 
such specially organized practice schools as shall be necessary. At 
the discretion of the President of the Republic, the normal schools 
shall offer special courses for those students who have passed the 
examinations of the fifth year of the colegios, with the aim of at- 



CHILE. 39 

tracting such, students into the field of teaching. That the need 
of wider training of the teachers is a pressing one in Chile is shown 
by the fact that, in 1915, of 3,000 rural teachers, only 350, and of 
6,240 primary teachers of the nation at large, only 2,435, had normal 
school training. The service had to be recruited by 2,000 graduates 
of primary schools who passed examinations, and by 1,850 appli- 
cants who held no certificate and were allowed to serve as temporary 
substitutes. 

Of special interest is the annual reciprocity of teachers between 
the Government of Chile and the Universities of the States of Cali- 
fornia and Washington, arranged in 1918. Each party is to send 
four. For the present the Chilean commission has expressed pre- 
dominant interest in secondary education, and has called for one 
university professor, one normal-school teacher, one teacher of 
technical subjects, and one teacher (preferably a woman) in sec- 
ondary education. The universities mentioned will act as the agents 
in the selection of the instructors. 

Interchange of university professors has also been arranged with 
Uruguay, which is for the present confined to medical instruction. 

The National Educational Association has at many meetings 
pressed for the scientific and practical training of the teachers of 
Chile in vocational studies; and for the appropriation by the Con- 
gress of a definite sum for sending normal teachers abroad for study 
in the modern practical and sociological subjects. 

TECHNICAL. EDUCATION. 

For this branch of education the National Educational Associa- 
tion in 1917 recommended that there be established by law a Council 
of Industrial Education composed of a director and 12 members, 
four of whom shall be professors of the fundamental technical 
branches, one a woman inspector of vocational schools for women, 
one an inspector general of primary education, one the director 
general of railroads, and one a director and inspector of army muni- 
tions. Their duties should be to exercise super intendency over the 
entire system of technical and industrial education to be organized 
in the Republic, over the national school of arts and trades, and 
over such industrial schools for girls and women as might be es- 
tablished. On this board should be likewise all inspectors and 
officials of such branches as might be later established. A bill em- 
bodying these provisions was introduced in the Congress but has 
not as yet been acted upon. 

Steady progress in all branches of technical education has been 
shown. The schools of higher primary grade offering technical 



40 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

courses number 288, with physical training and gymnastics com- 
pulsory in all grades. There were also in operation 29 technical 
colegios for women; 6 agricultural colegios; 10 commercial schools, 
controlled by the commission upon commercial education; and 3 
schools of mines. 

The department of industrial promotion has urged upon the 
Congress the establishment of a chain of industrial and agricultural 
schools. 

With the establishment by law of the Industrial University of 
Valparaiso there will be completed the full cycle of industrial edu- 
cation in Chile, consisting of: (1) Elementary industrial training 
in two schools already established and in six more to be established; 
(2) secondary industrial training in the School of Arts and Crafts; 
and (3) higher industrial training in the Technical School of 
Valparaiso. 

In November, 1918, met the first National Congress of Dairying, 
organized under the auspices of the Agronomic Society of Chile. It 
urged the legal organization of instruction in this branch in ( 1 ) spe- 
cial schools of dairying in northern and central Chile; (2) courses 
annexed to already established schools of agriculture; (3) in estab- 
lishments of secondary education for youths of both sexes in popular 
meetings and public traveling courses; (4) in rural primary schools 
for illiterate adults. 

It is appropriate to mention just here the comprehensive project 
of the board of missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the 
United States for the establishment of an agricultural and industrial 
system of education in southern Chile. It has been approved by 
the Government of Chile as a potent aid in the uplift of the peon 
class. A ranch of nearly 4,000 acres has been purchased along the 
Malleco Eiver, on which it is purposed to train the native popu- 
lation in the rudimentary subjects of instruction, and especially in 
modern agricultural methods. The management will employ the best 
available experts in horticulture, agriculture, and domestic arts to 
be found in the South American countries who may be acquainted 
with the needs of Chilean rural life. 

THE. NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHILE. 

This body plays a larger part in educational thought and leader- 
ship than the corresponding body in any other Latin American 
State. Its activities are planned for close articulation of the social 
and educational needs of the nation. One of the furthest reaching 
is the public-extension work in subjects of university and secondary 
instruction. In 1917, its eleventh year of operation, it held 14 con- 
ferences at the University of Chile, with an attendance of 15,000, an 



CHILE. 41 

increase of 50 per cent over the previous year. The subjects treated 
were patriotic, historical, literary, artistic, sociological, commercial, 
and medico-therapeutic. 

In secondary extension during 1917 there were held in provincial 
capitals 19 conferences on subjects more popular and more exclu- 
sively educational and sociological. 

The department of university extension has also for three years 
devoted itself to collecting international data upon immigration and 
naturalization laws, and has cooperated with all the labor organiza- 
tions of the Eepublic to hinder the passage of premature and unsci- 
entific laws in this field. 

The activities of the association cover a wide range. In his report 
for the year 1917 the president reviewed the activities of the body 
and examined the most important problems to which it had ad- 
dressed itself during the period. They were: 

1. The establishment of a rural normal school, a project not yet 

realized. 
'2. Democratic education by the progressive elimination of pri- 
mary courses of education in secondary institutions. 

3. Obligatory primary instruction, sought by a law passed by the 

Chamber of Deputies in 1917, but as yet not acted upon by 
the Senate. 

4. Nationalization of the Chilean system of education, a question 

which needs to be presented still more in detail to the nation 
and the Congress. 

Like Argentina, Chile has a grave problem in the assimilation of 
alien elements, and her nationalism is alarmed at the activity of the 
school organizations of diverse races existent on her soil. French 
students of education are intensely interested in this development 
as a vindication of their prophecies, for -they have long been point- 
ing out the Germanization of Chilean education. 

The association has vigorously urged legislation requiring the 
close and systematic inspection of all nongovernmental schools, es- 
pecially those of secondary grade in north Chile, where German 
propaganda has for years been an open secret, carried on, as was 
well known, by a German-Chilean Union of Teachers, and where 
German liceos exist in full operation. The association urged the 
requirement in secondary schools of essentially national subjects, 
such as Spanish and the history, geography, and civics of Chile, 
taught by Chileans and descendants of Chileans. 

In the field of physical education, the activities of the association 
have been specially directed to securing proper playgrounds for 
schools and to arousing practical interest in this field among philan- 
thropists and the public at large. The association has taken strong 
ground for antialcoholic instruction in primary and secondary 



42 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

schools, urging that such be incorporated in the textbooks in the 
study of physiology, hygiene, and temperance, and in independent 
courses in public schools and State colegios. The project encoun- 
tered opposition in the National Congress. The association has also 
grappled with the problem of immorality, issuing in May, 1917, 
appeals to families on sexual ethics and the systematic inculcation 
of ethical ideas of sex by educational and therapeutic measures. 
During 1917, fraternal relations were established with Brazil and 
Bolivia, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Higher Normal 
Institute. 



EDUCATION IN URUGUAY, 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

The marked educational awakening of Uruguay during the last 
biennium has been only one phase of the universal demand of the 
nation for a new social and economic adjustment. Perhaps the chief 
manifestation of this has been the adoption of the new constitution 
in place of the old, which had been in force exactly 90 years. At a 
plebiscite of November, 1917, the constitution as formulated was sub- 
mitted to the people and adopted by a vote of 85,000 to 4,000; and 
it became the fundamental law of the land on March 1, 1919. As 
regards its bearings upon educational administration, the most note- 
worthy change — and perhaps that around which centered most op- 
position during its consideration — was the provision which divides 
the executive power between a President and a National Council of 
Administration. 

The latter body, composed of nine members elected for six years 
directly by the people, and absolutely independent of the President, 
has charge of all matters relating to public instruction, public works, 
labor, industries, public charities, health, and the preparation of the 
annual national budget. The administrative officers of public in- 
struction of all grades, including the minister, are appointed by the 
National Council and are subject to its authority according to such 
particular laws and regulations as the Congress may enact. This sub- 
stitution of a composite board for an individual as the fountainhead 
of educational authority is an experiment whose operations will be 
observed with much interest in a country of South America habitu- 
ated by tradition to authority concentrated in an individual. 

ILLITERACY. 

Instruction of adults and the night schools. — The problem of com- 
bating illiterac} 7 , as in all the more progressive South American 
countries during the last biennium, has received more systematic con- 



URUGUAY. 43 

sideration than during any previous period. 1 As will be seen later 
in the consideration of the rural schools, measures have been taken 
which are of unusual importance for the instruction of youthful illit- 
erates. In the related field of instruction of adults who are illiterates 
or nearly so, work of a creative nature has been done in Uruguay. 
The mere statistics show progress, the courses offered for adults in the 
year 1916-17 being 55 in excess of the former year and the enrollment 
5,284, an increase of l,6Tl over that year; but the new spirit ani- 
mating this branch is the notable feature. The authorities have kept 
it steadily in mind to carry adult education out from the capital city 
to the rural districts; and the national authorities of primary edu- 
cation have cooperated efficiently in lending schoolhouses as places 
for adult instruction and encouraging primary teachers to assist 
in this work. The Government has furthered the study of the prob- 
lem in the researches of Senor Hipolito Coirolo, director of the 
largest night school for adults in Montevideo. Senor Coirolo spent 
nearly two years in collecting systematic data from Argentina, Bra- 
zil, Colombia, and Paraguay, which were naturally confronted by the 
same problems in adult illiteracy. In March, 1917, he presented to 
the authorities the results of his findings in a project for the organic 
reform of instruction for adults in the night schools. Senor Coirolo 
maintained that the time was ripe for progress in this field to keep 
pace with the other educational demands, more especially as it 
was admitted that the prevailing system was a more or less poorly 
made combination of regulations and practices covering many locali- 
ties and periods, and had been only tentatively adopted by presi- 
dential decree in 1903, and given legal existence in 1907, when 35 
night schools were organized. All familiar with conditions knew 
that they were now completely out of touch with modern social and 
educational demands. 

Seiior Coirolo found the curriculum of night schools too largely 
theoretical and bookish and in only a few instances offering practi- 
cal instruction. After careful study of the subjects offered in the 
night schools of progressive countries, he urged that the night schools 
of the future be organized upon the following main lines : 

1. The completion of 17 years of age requisite for admission. 

2. The division into three classes, each occupying a year according 
to the degree of illiteracy, and the division of each class into three 
cycles of three months each, the cycle to be the unit of time, without 
limitation upon the transfer of pupils from one cycle to another. 

3. The subjects to be introduced in logical sequence and to be 
taught in accordance with the development of the pupil and to con- 

1 See executive message of May, 1917, accompanying project of law for appropriation 
of $50,000 for appointment of 100 assistant primary teachers for the Departments of the 
Republic. 



44 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

sist of reading, language work, writing,- arithmetic, elements of ap- 
plied geometry, singing, drawing, moral instruction, elements of 
anatomy, physiology, hygiene, civic instruction, geography, and his- 
tory (national and universal) ; talks and lessons on objects of daily 
life, manual arts, domestic economy, and household arts ; elements of 
political economy, sociology, psychology, duties of parents, account- 
ing, and industrial training. Individual conferences with teachers, 
reading, writing, and arithmetic are to be continued through all three 
years; and each year is to close with a review and finishing course, 
devoting attention to individual needs. 

4. Under the head of general administration the proponent urged 
the elimination of religious instruction in night schools, less atten- 
tion to examinations for promotion, the prohibition of holding night 
schools in buildings occupied by children during the day, and careful 
inspection of night schools by appointed authorities. 

Certain of these provisions were embodied in a ministerial decree 
of October, 1917, which stressed the importance of this branch of 
education in the national life, and appropriated $10,000 for the in- 
crease of the staff of teachers in commercial subjects and domestic 
arts. 

PRIMARY EDUCATION, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. 

In 1917 slightly less than 100,000 pupils were enrolled in the 1,014 
public primary schools of Uruguay, an increase of 2,500 over the 
preceding year. Of these, nearly 65,000 were enrolled in the city of 
Montevideo alone. 

In administration and inspection the authorities in this field were 
active and progressive. Tentative reforms in the programs of study 
for the schools of towns and villages, a step long urged by them, were 
outlined by the minister of education ; and wider latitude was allowed 
such individual schools in the matter of adapting nature study and 
practical courses to regular school work in accordance with local 
conditions and occupations. This step was in keeping with the at- 
tention paid to rural schools, which will be discussed later. 

By executive resolution of July, 1917, the long- discussed change in 
the school year was made by which it shall hereafter open March 1 
and close December 15. As with the similar change in Argentina, 
beneficial results, especially in the rural schools, are expected, as this 
arrangement is in conformity with climatic conditions. The change 
was made after investigation among the teaching force, and the coun- 
try teachers won a victorjr over their city fellows, who favored vaca- 
tions in the summer. This is but another and a significant effect of 
the steady centripetal attraction of the overshadowing capital city, 
more marked even in the new countries of South America than in the 



UKUGUAY. 45 

old ones of Europe. The country teachers have openly expressed 
their wish to spend the longest posisble time in the capital, in spite 
of the inconveniences of such a sojourn in the summer. A further 
light upon the country teacher's point of view is shown by the in- 
formation that the long vacations in winter permit the small land- 
owner to employ his children in labors of battage, which begin in 
December and last most of the winter. The schools are therefore 
practically empty in winter. It is manifestly wiser to put the former 
long vacation of July at this time. 

Complaints having become more frequent in regard to the blocking 
oi educational administration in certain departments because of dis- 
agreements among inspectors, more drastic requirements were laid 
down by resolutions of the National Inspection of Primary In- 
struction, dated February, 1917. The authority of the departmental 
inspector over the subinspectors was confirmed; in the event of 
disagreement or insubordination the departmental inspector was 
required to present the case to the Department of National Inspec- 
tion; the visitation of schools was distributed as nearly equally as 
possible; and the responsibility for inaction was put squarely upon 
the inspectors. 

These provisions, rigorous as they were, did not prove adequate, 
and much of the business of the schools of the outlying departments 
still remained blocked. The executive, therefore, in November, 1917, 
transmitted to the Congress, along with a message emphasizing the 
necessity of the law, a project for the establishment of three divi- 
sions of regional inspectors of primary education to exercise general 
supervision over the departmental inspectors and the schools of the 
Eepublic. These regional inspectors acting as a unit were to con- 
stitute the technical inspection of the school authorities. Their func- 
tions were to be regulated by the executive in accordance with the 
reports of the national inspection and the general direction of pri- 
mary instruction. The hitherto existing chief inspectors, technical, 
adjunct, and chief of statistics were to be transformed into regional 
inspectors, and under their immediate supervision were to be put all 
the departmental inspectors. The projected law encountered un- 
expected opposition, and its passage has not as yet been secured. 

Scientific interest in the character of the textbooks adopted for use 
in the primary schools of Uruguay has been aroused by the Govern- 
ment's offer of prizes for satisfactory textbooks and by the publica- 
tion in the Anales de Instruccion Primaria of illustrative lines and 
themes of treatment. The general assembly has authorized the offer 
of $6,000 in prizes in the contest for the composition of a book com- 
bining in a single volume all the textbook material needed in the 
fourth, fifth, and sixth classes in the public schools of Montevideo. 
This offer had as its object to lower the cost of education and thus to 



4(5 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

facilitate attendance, as the book in question was to be distributed 
gratuitously in cases of need. 

A circular issued by the department of technical inspection in 
April, 1917, called the attention of teachers to the abuses of assigning 
written home work and limited such tasks to 30 minutes in classes of 
the first grade and to one hour for those in higher grades. 

By executive decree, school savings funds and a system of aid for 
necessitous children, supplying clothing, midday meal, transporta- 
tion, and books, were established and placed in charge of the admin- 
istrative council for each department, composed of the departmental 
authorities of primary education, and the civil authorities of the 
several localties, presided over by the departmental inspectors. The 
funds for the institution of this system were to be drawn from State 
subventions to municipalities, school fees, and legacies and gifts to 
such objects. Although the Congress in October, 1917, appropriated 
$30,000 to organize the system, financial considerations have as yet 
prevented its practical organization. 

Private instruction. — For the first time in the history of Uruguay 
systematic steps have been taken to ascertain the real nature and 
aims of private instruction. By executive decree of May, 1917, the 
inspector of private instruction and the assistant director general 
of primary public instruction were directed to address to every 
private educational institution in Uruguay a questionnaire in dupli- 
cate calling for information concerning its teaching staff, the mental 
and physical condition of its pupils, the hygienic conditions of the 
building and site, classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, source and 
nature of drinking water, lighting conditions, school furniture and 
equipment, programs of study, methods, textbooks, school hours, 
and the general organization and administration of the school. No 
time limit was set for the reply, but it was requested within a 
reasonable time. The gist of the information gathered and the 
action of the Government have not as yet been published. Such a; 
move has naturally aroused opposition in conservative and ecclesias- 
tical circles, and its results are awaited with keen interest by other 
South American countries which have to deal with similar problems. 

The issues aroused by the consideration of the private schools 
continued to grow more acute, and culminated in the introduction 
of a bill in the Congress in March, 1918, forbidding the opening 
of private schools of any grade without the written permission of 
the inspectoral department of private instruction or the depart- 
mental inspectors of primary instruction; and requiring all teachers 
in private schools to hold a State teacher's diploma in accordance 
with the provisions of the law of public instruction, and debarring 
the clergy from teaching in any such private schools. The bill 
naturally became a storm center and is as yet unenacted into law. 



URUGUAY. 47 

RURAL SCHOOLS. 

Until the breaking out of the World War, and the consequent 
upsetting of traditions in all South American countries whose outlet 
is on the Atlantic Ocean, educational thought in Uruguay concerned 
itself largely with the capital city. In this respect, as in that of 
population (one out of three people in Uruguay lives in Monte- 
video), the 'Centralizing tendency of South American countries is 
well illustrated. But a vital change began to show itself from 
1914 to 1916, and in the latter year it acquired extraordinary im- 
petus from the support of national leaders and of the press. The 
nation has grown steadily to recognize the proper balance to be 
observed between the claims of the schools of the capital and those 
of the rural districts. It has come to see that a healthy national 
life was possible only with organic changes in the schools of the 
outlying departments, and that these of Montevideo could without 
danger be left at their present status until the education of the 
people from whom the great city was steadily recruited should be 
attended to. It is in the light of this radical change in the national 
attitude that the educational history of Uruguay for the last bien- 
nium should be read. 

This epoch in educational progress has been further marked by 
the recognition of the need of financial support for rural education, 
and the further need of differentiating the subjects of instruction 
proper for rural children from those adapted to the city. In getting 
this principle clearly before the public mind, the educational au- 
thorities of Uruguay have played a part excelled in few countries 
for skill and devotion to the national interests. Mention should be 
made of the able contributions of Senor A. J. Perez, National 
Inspector of Primary Education, especially of his study entitled 
" De la cultura necessaria en la democracia " (Anales, 1918), which 
applies to modern conditions De Tocqueville's main lines of thought. 

A commission of nine experienced teachers, six men and three 
women, with Senor Perez as chairman, was appointed by executive 
decree to formulate the program of study for the projected rural 
schools. It began its sessions in February, 1917, and met frequently 
for two months. Its report was presented in May, 1917. Approved 
by the executive in June, by decree it went into effect on March 1, 
1918. The main contentions of the commission in support of its plan 
are well worthy of notice : 

1. Far-reaching changes within a generation in the commercial and 
industrial life of the nation have affected the rural districts and have 
called for different subjects and methods of instruction for the chil- 
dren of these districts. The rural school of the future must be 



48 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

recognized as fundamentally an elementary industrial school ad- 
justed to local conditions. 

2. The successful rural school must have the following aims: To 
inculcate conscientious and efficient labor; to minister to a well- 
regulated and happy home life ; to diffuse the knowledge of private 
and public hygiene, and to further the increase of population and 
public wealth and, in general, the possession of a well-founded and 
enduring popular liberty. 

3. The intimate relation of the rural schools with the problems of 
home life requires the new rural school to be taught by women, and 
therefore the training of young women as teachers in such schools 
should be at once initiated and continued as the basis of their success. 
Concrete illustration is found in the successful intensive training of 
24 young women in a course of six weeks at the normal institute at 
Montevideo in the summer of 1917. 

4. In the administrative organization the committee was guided 
by the following general principles: (a) Not to install rural schools 
by foundation or transfer except in localities where donations of 
ground of not less than 4 hectares (10 acres) should be immediately 
available ; ( h ) to urge similar donations, public or private, to existing 
rural schools which lacked grounds of the minimum area above indi- 
cated; (c) to propose and encourage the transfer of rural schools 
that had no grounds annexed nor could obtain such by donation to 
another parish where such advantages could be obtained without 
prejudice to the interests of the rural schools in the district. 

5. No child below 7 years of age should be admitted to the rural 
schools. 

6. The programs of study for the rural schools occupied the greater 
part of the commission's time. The subjects of instruction as re- 
ported covered three years, and were reading, language work, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, drawing, agriculture, domestic economy, elements of 
applied geometry, geography and history (local, national, and uni- 
versal), singing, and gj^mnastics. In the view of the commission 
itself, the feature which peculiarly differentiates these new pro- 
grams is the complete application of practical methods and aims to 
each of these subjects, the elimination of abstract and memory teach- 
ing, and, above all, the development of the subjects of drawing, 
agriculture, and domestic econom}^. The fundamental aim through- 
out was to correlate instruction with the conditions and occupations 
of life in the several communities and to lead the pupil to see each 
subject as related to practical utility. 

Following the promulgation of the report of the commission, lively 
interest was manifested by the nation at large in the initiation of 
such rural schools. Practical difficulties, however, were foreseen in 
securing funds for their launching upon the nation-wide scale hoped 



URUGUAY. 49 

for, and restlessness in certain quarters was manifested, though the 
Chamber of Deputies promptly voted the funds necessary. The 
National Rural Congress of Uruguay, in session in August, 1917, 
addressed to the minister of public instruction an urgent plea for 
carrying out the terms of the report in time for the opening of at 
least a part of such schools with the new school year. 

MEDICAL, INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. 

The medical inspection of schools has been favorably regarded in 
Uruguay for a number of years. It was initiated by law in 1913 with 
the examination of the pupils of the normal schools in Montevideo 
and the division of urban and rural schools into five groups. Since 
then popular approval of its application to the schools of the nation 
has steadily grown. 

Under the present law individual inspection of the physical con- 
dition of pupils concerns itself only with those who enter for the 
first time. Naturally the law is applied with varying degrees of 
rigor, the schools of the capital being visited regularly by the medi- 
cal inspectors, while those of the outlying departments are dependent 
upon the energy and faithfulness of the individual inspector. The 
law assigns to each a certain number of schools to visit. Capable 
medical inspectors have served their nation well in pointing out the 
grave disadvantages from the use of primary schools for night 
schools for adults, especially the danger of tuberculosis. 

Medical inspectors are also required by law to include in their tri- 
monthly reports recommendations for repairs, alterations, etc., of 
school buildings and grounds called for by sanitary or hygenic con- 
siderations. 

Dental inspection has also been systematically carried on in most 
of the schools of the capital, the reports of oral and dental affections 
observed in the children reaching 76 per cent of the total ailments 
noted. Ocular inspection in the schools of Montevido has also been 
made a separate field within the last biennium. 

By an amendment of 1916 to the existing law an annual physical 
examination of teachers in the schools of Montevideo will be required. 
This was naturally, and in certain instances bitterly, opposed; but 
the opposition has largely died down, and the teachers themselves 
have come to realize the benefits involved. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 

In accordance with the wish of educational officials to diffuse among 
the schools of Uruguay the benefits of international progress in the 
physical betterment of school children, a commission was named by 
the executive in April, 1916, to draw up a plan of physical education 



50 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

in schools. This commission, acting in cooperation with the general 
direction of primary instruction, recommended to the executive the 
appointment of a permanent technical commission of physical train- 
ing for schools, and this recommendation was approved by executive 
decree of March 8, 1918. The commission so appointed was to con- 
sist of a member of the general direction of primary instruction, 
one of the national commission of physical education, a physician 
of the medical school staff, a physician to be named by the National 
Council of Hygiene, the technical inspector of primary education, 
the technical director of the National Commission of Physical Edu- 
cation, the teachers of gymnastics of the normal institutes and of 
the primary schools of the capital, and two physicians who were 
specialists in diseases of children. 

The province of the commission was to draw up for the general 
direction of primary instruction programs of physical exercises for 
schools ; to outline methods of instruction ; to see that these programs 
and methods were practically carried out in the public schools, to 
inform the school authorities upon points of deficiency in instruction 
and to indicate measures of correcting these; to organize gymnastic 
meetings and exhibitions for schools, and in general to promote the 
diffusion of physical education in the schools. 

In furtherance of the awakened national interest in physical edu- 
cation, the executive has appointed departmental commissions in 
various departments for the immediate provision of adequate play- 
grounds and the acquisition of apparatus for games to be installed 
in town and village plazas. These have cooperated with the National 
Commission for Physical Education, the latter having decreed the 
establishment, upon application of residents, of neighborhood and 
community playing centers. All games, especially those of North 
America, which are adapted to the climate and environment have 
been systematically encouraged. In localities where it was required 
by law the executive has authorized the municipal authorities, with 
the consent of the national commission, to negotiate such loans as 
were necessary for the financial carrying out of this nation-wide 
scheme. These are steps of very great significance in a country of 
South America not by tradition or racial inheritance addicted to 
outdoor sports. 

SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

By executive message of February 14, 1918, the work of certain 
of the departmental liceos in discovering boys of talent in the higher 
elementary schools who were without means of continuing their 
education, and giving them opportunities to pursue their studies by 
means of a system of scholarships, was highly commended, especially 



URUGUAY. 5 1 

as a beginning of bridging the chasm between elementary and 
secondary education. 

In response to popular demand, courses in Italian and Portuguese 
were incorporated by decree of the secondary education division of 
public instruction in 1917. With the object of making known to 
teachers in secondary education the international progress in this 
field, a journal entitled " Revista de Ensenanza Secundaria " was 
established by executive decree under the direction of the secretary 
of this division. All reports and public business concerning this 
division are to be published in this journal. 

By executive decree of November, 1917, all courses for the train- 
ing of primary-school teachers maintained since April, 1916, in the 
liceos of the outlying departments were discontinued. They had 
been originally instituted by way of experiment for supplying 
teachers for the rural schools, and were not regarded as serving this 
purpose. Furthermore, in view of the agitation for improved rural 
schools, it was regarded as useless to continue a system of training 
which had proved, because of its environment, impracticable to 
harmonize with modern schools. 

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 

The past biennium has seen a considerable development of interest 
in commercial education. By executive recommendation and by law 
of January, 1916, there were introduced in the liceos and national 
schools of commerce in the capital and three of the larger cities 
courses of varying length for the training of boys for the consular, 
diplomatic, and foreign agency services. By ministerial decree of 
April, 1917, there were incorporated in the national schools of com- 
merce courses in civil and commercial law, American history, and 
advanced courses in accounting and bookkeeping; and legal per- 
mission was given the individual school to extend the latter courses 
into the fifth year wherever deemed suitable. In common with 
students finishing the courses in the liceos, those from national school 
of commerce were granted opportunity to compete for scholarships 
abroad offered by decree of January, 1918. These scholarships are 
good for one or more years according to the success; of the holder, 
and are apportioned among the departments according to the dis- 
cretion of the council of secondary and preparatory education. 
Among the usual scholastic requirements called for are periodical 
reports from the holder of such a scholarship concerning the social 
and economic conditions of the people among whom he has been sent 
to study. 

Following the plan drawn up at Montevideo in the summer of 
1918 by governmental and educational representatives from most of 



52 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

the South American countries, invitations were sent to all interested 
in commercial education to attend the South American Congress 
of Commercial Education to be held in that city in January-Febru- 
ary, 1919. The best talent in this division of education was assigned 
the discussion of topics which were considered as most urgent at the 
present time. They were treated under two main heads, those of 
(a) economic commercial expansion and (b) commercial instruc- 
tion. The former head, not being essentially educational, calls for 
no notice here. The latter included the following topics : 

1. From what points, how, and by what means commercial educa- 
tion should be developed on the American continent ; extent and sub- 
division of such instruction. 

2. Means of stimulating acquaintance among the peoples of the 
Americas. 

3. The centers of commercial education as professional schools, 
and as institutions of modern culture. 

4. Should courses in business ethics be included in the curriculum 
of the advanced classes? Morale, character, and culture of students 
of commerce and of consular service. 

5. Universal history of commerce as an indispensable element in 
the training of competent consuls. 

6. Are screen films necessary in giving instruction in commerce 
and geography? 

7. Countinghouse practice. 

8. How should commerce be taught? 

9. Teaching of languages in the centers of commercial education. 

10. Preparation of women for a commercial career. 

Among the resolutions officially adopted by the congress which 
had educational bearing were those recommending that — 

(a) Institutes or sections of economic expansion in faculties of 
economic science, schools, and higher centers of economic and com- 
mercial study be established which should devote themselves espe- 
cially to the study and practical solution of the various economic 
questions affecting inter- American relations and solidarity. 

(b) For social and economic ends American countries create and 
aid industrial schools for fisheries and derived industries. 

(c) Propaganda primers be prepared for exchange among the 
public schools of the (South) American Continent. 

(d) There be included in programs of higher commercial study 
courses of comparative American economy and comparative cus- 
toms legislation (the latter for consular courses), and that existing 
seminaries of economic investigation or higher commerce schools 
write the economic and financial history of their respective 
countries. 



URUGUAY. 53 

(e) The interchange of professors and students between the 
higher institutions of commercial learning be initiated. 

*(/) International agreements be concluded for the reciprocal 
recognition of degrees issued by institutions of commercial learning 
and that scholarships be granted for the interchange of students. 

(g) The compilation of legislation of American countries con- 
cerning commercial education be intrusted to the permanent com- 
mission created by the congress. The commission will be assisted 
in this work by a committee of professors and experts in commer- 
cial education and will be charged with proposing plans and cur- 
ricula in accordance with the following: Commercial instruction, 
which presupposes primary education, to be divided into three cate- 
gories — (a) Elementary instruction, which may be dependent or 
independent; (h) secondary instruction; (c) higher instruction. 
The purpose of these branches is: (a) To train auxiliaries of com- 
merce; (b) to prepare for commerce in general; (c) to furnish 
economic, financial, and commercial knowledge preparing for di- 
rective functions in commerce and industry, insurance and consular 
work, etc. 

(h) Preliminary cultural studies of two grades be established, 
one confined to the first and second categories of commercial instruc- 
tion, and the second for broader instruction in the third category. 

(i) The study of the proposal of the National Institute of Com- 
merce of La Paz, Bolivia, concerning education of women be 
referred to the permanent commission. 

(k) Higher institutions of commercial education establish, if not 
already existing, in their curricula the separation of commercial 
from economic geography, the study of commercial geography to 
begin in primary schools, with periodical competitions for the 
preparation of the best commercial and economic geographies of 
each country and the exchange of prize works be arranged for. 

(I) Institutions of bibliography and information be established, 
independent of or annexed to seminaries or institutes, for investiga- 
tion existing or to be founded in America, and providing for the 
widest exchange of economic, financial, and commercial informa- 
tion collected. 

(m) The practice of the professions receiving diplomas from 
higher institutions of commercial learning in commercial, civil, and 
administrative matters be legally recognized. 

(n) An extraordinary prize to be known as the Pablo Fontaina 
Prize for Commercial Studies be offered for students of higher 
institutions of commercial learning. (Sr. Pablo Fontaina is director 
of the Superior School of Commerce of Montevideo and played a 
prominent part in the organization and work of the congress.) 



54 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

(o) Entrance into consular and diplomatic services be granted by 
competitive examination or to candidates presenting degrees issued 
by official institutions of higher commercial learning. 

(p) Courses of ethics in preparatory studies and lectures on com- 
mercial ethics in higher institutions of commercial learning de- 
livered by distinguished professional men be established. 

TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 

Uruguay has always been progressive in this field. In 1914* 
Senorita Leonor Hourticou, the directress of the Normal Institute for 
Girls, submitted to the national inspector of primary instruction a 
far-reaching and systematic plan of reform in the aims and methods 
of practice teaching. She urged the establishment of a general direc- 
torate of teachers' practice training, composed of directors of normal 
institutes and the national technical inspector of schools, which body 
was to operate through a salaried secretary. Practice teaching for 
the first grade was to be required for one year with a minimum of 
160 sessions and for the second year for at least three months with 
a minimum number of 60 sessions. Twelve schools for practice teach- 
ing were to be established at Montevideo. Local inspectors were to 
be appointed by the general directorate. While this scheme was not 
enacted into law, yet it had very great value in focusing the attention 
of the educational authorities upon the practical problem of reor- 
ganizing practice teaching. 

These recommendations were allowed to lapse ; but along with the 
demand for improved schools went a similar one for the improve- 
ment of the schools in towns and villages. In 1916 a committee of 
which the directress of the Normal Institute for Girls was chairman 
was appointed to formulate a training course for nonrural teachers 
which should be in keeping with the recognized needs of modern 
schools. In October, 1916, it presented as its report an outline of 
studies recommended to be incorporated in the three years' training 
course for primary teachers. 

Taking up for the present only the teachers of the first and sec- 
ond grades, the committee recommended the following courses : 
Arithmetic, accounting, algebra, applied geometry, penmanship and 
drawing, elements of biology, zoology, botany, mineralogy and 
geology, anatomy, physiology and hygiene, physics and chemistry x 
studies in industries, geography and cosmography, history (national, 
South American, and universal), constitutional law, sociology and 
political economy, literature and composition, French, philosophy, 
and pedagogy with practice teaching. By the approval of the ex- 
ecutive these courses were to go into effect in September, 1917. 



URUGUAY. 55 

Training of rural teachers. — The movement to improve the con- 
ditions of rural life which has been mentioned before began in earnest 
in 1914. In that year a report based upon an intensive study of the 
social and economic needs of the rural districts was presented to the 
general direction of primary instruction by a committee of teach- 
ers especially appointed for that purpose. Though no official action 
was taken at the time, the ventilation of the subject was very oppor- 
tune and aroused public interest in a field so vital to the welfare of 
the nation. In every phase of rural education, and especially in the 
training of the teachers required, practical reforms were recognized 
as urgently necessary. From the strictly pedagogical point of view, 
the projects for teacher training as laid down in that report were of 
supreme interest, as constituting the basis upon which all subsequent 
suggestions have rested. They called for the establishment of a nor- 
mal school exclusively for women rural teachers, which was prefer- 
ably to be located either within the capital city or within easy access 
of it. This school was to work along the three main lines of agricul- 
ture, horticulture, and domestic science. For admission there was 
to be required, in addition to the usual certificates of mental, moral, 
and physical fitness, the certificate of completion of at least the third 
year of the program of the rural schools. 

The courses were to cover at least two years, preferably three, with 
provision for four-year courses for pupils aspiring to the post of 
rural inspectors, an aspiration which was encouraged in the report. 
Only two or three scholarships were to be offered in each department, 
and the number of pupils was to be restricted to 50 for the first year. 
No purely theoretical instruction whatsoever was to be allowed. In- 
creasingly specialized work in the practice school annexed was to be 
required of every pupil each year. For the last two years the work 
of practice teaching was to be so arranged as to alternate by semes- 
ters with the classroom work assigned. The latter, toward the end 
of each semester, was to review all the work from the beginning. 

The projected institute was to be provided with all grounds, build- 
ings, and equipment necessary for the teaching of every phase of 
rural life, including the care of fowls and cattle, with library and 
laboratories, with a modern gymnasium, with a hall for the teaching 
of the fine arts, and, most important of all, with a mixed practice 
school under the direction of the authorities of the institute, consist- 
ing of at least three grades and preferably four. 

Summer courses for teachers, both men and women, were to be 
offered, emphasizing practical work in all courses related to rural 
life. Traveling schools of agriculture were outlined to appeal es- 
pecially to youths of years beyond the rural school age and already 
engaged in farming, each class to have not less than 8 pupils and not 
more than 15, and to continue for periods ranging from one week 



56 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

to two months according to the demand in each locality. These 
traveling schools were to be organized for the same nnit of territory 
as the rural schools already in existence. Each course was to be 
arranged in cycles as follows: (1) Three years' course in dairying; 
(2) four years' course in domestic science; (3) three years' course 
for rural teachers, men and women. 'Suitable certificates were to be 
awarded students satisfactorily completing these courses. 

As regards the courses in rural schools, the committee found that 
the advantages accruing did not justify instructing pupils below 8 
years of age in formal agriculture, satisfactory progress being made 
if the pupil was awakened to a love of nature and an interest in the 
life of the farm. Pupils above 8 were to be instructed in agricultural 
courses progressively adapted to their maturity and to the peculiar 
conditions of locality, soil, and climate. 

As regards courses in domestic science, though the subject does 
not permit of a sharp age line of cleavage, yet the youngest girls 
might most profitably be given the elements, while the older girls 
might, in the discretion of trained teachers, take up the formal and 
technical study of food values in connection with elementary chemis- 
try, physiology, and biology. 

Anticipating the establishment of the normal schools for the 
exclusive training of teachers for the projected rural schools, the 
executive in November, 1917, sent to the Congress, along with the 
accompanying message, the project of a law for establishing two nor- 
mal schools of agriculture in the Departments of Colonia and San 
Jose. These schools were intended to minister to the special need of 
these outlying departments. Their courses were to be intensive in 
character, adapted especially to the training of teachers for these 
localities, and to cover a year. Indeed, the bill specifically mentioned 
their purposes as intimately related with the forthcoming rural 
schools. The bill at once became a law, and the schools were to begin 
operation in March, 1918. 

HIGHER EDUCATION. 

In the field of university education no changes, administrative or 
instructional, are recorded for the past biennium ; but there has been 
a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the administrative govern- 
ment of the University of Montevideo. In September, 1918, the 
executive sent to the Congress, along with an accompanying mes- 
sage, the project of a law clearly defining the constitution of the 
directive councils of the several faculties of the University of 
Montevideo as established by the laws of 1908 and 1915. Conten- 
tion had arisen as to the right of electing representatives to each of 
these councils. By the new law each such council was to have 10 



VENEZUELA. 57 

members and a dean. In the faculty of law four of these were to 
be elected by the attorneys who were also professors ; four attorneys 
to be selected by those neither professors nor substitutes ; one minor 
attorney* by those neither professors nor substitutes ; one student 
delegate by the students themselves. 

In the faculty of medicine four members were to be elected by the 
professors, substitutes, and chiefs of clinics and laboratories ; three 
members to be elected by the physicians not embraced in the above 
categories; one member to be elected by the pharmacist's; and one 
by the dentists not included in the categories above; one member to 
be elected by the students of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. 

In the faculty of engineering four members were to be elected by 
the professors and substitutes; three members to be elected by the 
engineers ; and two by the surveyors who were neither professors nor 
substitutes ; one member to be elected by the students of engineering 
and surveying. 

In the faculty of architecture five members were to be elected by 
the professors and substitutes ; four members to be elected by archi- 
tects who were neither professors nor substitutes ; one member to be 
elected by the students of architecture. 

By decrees of 1917 enacted into law, seven years of advanced 
courses were required for the degree of doctor of medicine and five 
years for the degree of architect. Special courses of one and two 
years in construction and materials, leading to certificates but not 
to degrees, were formulated and allowed by the ministry of public 
instruction. 

In pursuance of the policy of exchanging professors between the 
various countries of South America formulated at the Pan American 
Conference held at Buenos Aires in 1910, special exchange was 
arranged with Chile in 1916. 



EDUCATION IN VENEZUELA. 

Primary education in Venezuela, during the biennium under con- 
sideration, has enlisted the practical interest of the National Govern- 
ment as never before. This has taken shape primarily in the two 
fundamental administrative decrees of the Provisional President, Dr. 
Bustillos. The first, issued in February, 1917, outlines the general 
requirements laid down in the organic law of public instruction 
under certain regulations for primary public schools. These are 
divided into three main heads : (a) The primary elementary schools, 
in which only those subjects belonging to compulsory primary in- 
struction are taught; (h) higher primary schools, in which are taught 
the subjects belonging to higher primary instruction; (c) complete 



58 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

primary schools, in which instruction is given in both the above divi- 
sions at once. 

The decree requires that each school be equipped with all modern 
appliances for the physical well-being of the pupils. Children are 
not admitted below 7 years of age ; only those below 7 years are ad- 
mitted to the mothers' schools or the kindergartens ; only those above 
14 are admitted to the schools for adults. 

The subjects required in the elementary primary schools are: 
Reading, writing, and elements of Spanish; elements of arithmetic 
and the metric system ; rudiments of geography and history of Vene- 
zuela; rudiments of ethics and civic instruction; rudiments of be- 
havior and hygiene; the national hymn and school songs; the first 
elements of manual arts, and, for girls, of sewing. 

In the higher primary schools are taught the following : Elements 
of Spanish grammar, elementary arithmetic, metric system, geog- 
raphy and history of Venezuela, elements of universal geography 
and history, elementary science, ethical and civic instruction, behavior 
and elementary hygiene, elements of drawing and music, manual 
arts and elements of agriculture and cattle raising for boys, sewing 
and domestic economy for girls, gymnastic exercises. 

Religious instruction is^ imparted to pupils whose parents or 
guardians require it, provided that the number of such be at least 10. 
The celebration of school festivals as required by law, the establish- 
ment of libraries in each school accessible to both pupils and teach- 
ers, and the keeping of books and registers by teachers and directors 
are among the general provisions emphasized in the regulations. 

The second decree, issued by the Provisional President in July, 
1917, sets forth the regulations for the official inspection of public 
instruction. It expressly concerns the following schools: 

1. Those maintained or aided by the Federal Union. 

2. Those of primary, secondary, and normal instruction, main- 
tained or aided by the States or by the municipalities. 

3. Public and private schools satisfying legal requirements of good 
conduct and school hygiene. 

The official inspection of schools has its ultimate authority 
vested in the following grades of functionaries : 

1. Committees (juntas) constituted by law in localities main- 
taining a school. 

2. Technical inspectors of primary, secondary, and normal in- 
struction for the Federal District and the States of the Union. 

3. A superintendent for the Federal District. 

4. Inspectors necessary for the operation of higher and special 
instruction. 

5. Commissioners appointed for special educational cases. 



VENEZUELA. 59 

The duties and responsibilities imposed by law upon the juntas 
of primary instruction are detailed at greatest length, as upon them 
rests the proper execution of the law and the success of the entire 
system. Most important of all these duties are those pertaining to 
the enforcement of compulsory primary instruction. The juntas 
are required to keep themselves informed of the primary instruction 
imparted to all children of school age in their district, whether in 
schools public or private or at home; to require all parents and 
guardians of children of school age to have such children instructed 
as required by law; to keep themselves informed of the progress of 
all such children ; to impose fines as required by law upon all parents 
or guardians who neglect the instruction of children ; to see that the 
children admitted to schools of all grades conform in age, state of 
health, etc., to the requirements of the law; to visit the schools in 
their district frequently and regularly; and to keep registers of all 
facts pertaining to the attendance upon such schools. 

The duties and responsibilities of the inspectoral juntas of sec- 
ondary instruction and those of normal instruction are full and ex- 
acting and along the lines already laid down. 

The technical inspectors as a group have charge of all three grades 
of instruction, each in the district assigned to him. As fixed by 
ministerial decree, there are 10 of these, excluding the superintend- 
ent for the Federal District. These functionaries are the direct 
agents of the ministry of public instruction, and form the connecting 
link between that office and the local juntas. They are vested with 
complete power to compel the execution of the law by the local 
juntas under penalties prescribed by law. They are instructed to 
work in complete harmony with the juntas, to call meetings, and 
to outline to them their duties under the law. They are also required 
to instruct teachers in their duties. In short, the inspectors are the 
element upon which the successful working of the machinery of the 
regulations depends. 

The superintendent of public instruction in the Federal District 
is directly under the authority of the minister of education. 

The inspectors of higher and special instruction have duties and 
responsibilities analogous to those of the inspectors already men- 
tioned, though these, for obvious reasons, are not outlined at such 
length. 

In the field of primary instruction the interest aroused in rural 
schools has been the most marked feature in the past biennium. The 
ministry of public instruction has paid special attention to the project 
of establishing rural schools, fixed or traveling, in the vicinity of 
the main manufacturing, industrial, or commercial centers of the 
country, and the President by decree of July, 1917, in commendino- 



60 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

the project, urged upon the juntas wherever possible to develop this 
type of schools. Especially in the agricultural or cattle-raising sec- 
tions was the project received with enthusiasm, applying, as it did, 
directly to the problems of illiteracy and the training of the country 
population in practical subjects related to daily life. By special 
decree the President urged the introduction of elementary courses in 
agriculture in the established schedule of studies. 

Among the States which definitely established such schools the 
State of Trujillo, fourth in population, took the lead by establishing 
14, with predominant emphasis upon practical courses in agriculture 
and related subjects. Such schools began at once to serve as centers 
for the instruction not only of the children of school age but of the 
population generally in new methods, the use of machines, cooperative 
societies, etc. Similarly in sections devoted to cattle raising they 
were centers of inspiration and instruction in related subjects. 

During the last biennium the industrial plants located in the cen- 
ters of Venezuela have established primary schools for the children 
of their operatives, with the approval of the authorities, State and 
municipal. The minister of public instruction, in his memoria for 
1918, urge upon the Congress the passage of a law recognizing the 
work of these schools, arranging for their inspection by the govern- 
mental technical inspectors and the classification and certification of 
pupils completing the courses offered in them. Such schools have 
also done much in combating the illiteracy among adults by means 
of night schools, and they have in many places, by employing excel- 
lent teachers, served the very useful purpose of raising the standard 
of requirement in various districts for the public schools, State or 
municipal. 

Secondary education in Venezuela, according to the memoria 
referred to, suffers much from the insufficiency and irregularity of the 
revenues devoted to it, with the consequent inefficient equipment for 
modern and scientific subjects and the inadequate salaries of the 
teachers. On the pedagogical side the memoria found the effects 
experienced by secondary education from the mechanical and memory 
instruction, too largely prevalent in primary education, a permanent 
obstacle to any hope of real reform in secondary education. 

The colegios, a type of secondary school peculiar to the Spanish- 
.American countries, of grade preparatory to the liceos, seem to be 
disappearing from Venezuelan education. There are now left only 
13 Federal colegios, all the others maintained by the States and 
municipalities having lapsed. The explanation probably lies in the 
exaggerated theoretical instruction they offered and its lack of 
adaptation to the actual needs of the nation. A number of them 
occupied buildings of some size and pretension, and the minister in 



VENEZUELA. 61 

his last memoria suggested that the vocational and industrial schools 
needed in the educational system might well be installed in these 
buildings. 

Interest in the education of girls has made progress in Venezuela, 
an especially promising liceo for girls having been established at 
Caracas, offering advanced courses covering two years, with special 
attention to physical training and modern subjects. 

Education in arts and crafts for men has long been popular in 
Venezuela, perhaps largely because of the national talent in those 
subjects. The school at Caracas, established in 1916, offers a four- 
year course, with English as the only foreign language. Within 
two years it reached an enrollment of 288 in the regular classes and 
213 in the night courses. 

Commercial education and training in political science courses 
have grown in popularity during the last biennium. Schools of the 
former have been established at Caracas, Maracaibo, Ciudad Bolivar, 
and Puerto Cabello ; and of the latter, at Caracas, subsidized by the 
Government and regarded as an important adjunct in training 
for the legal profession. 

In the field of the primary normal schools, the ministry has seen 
the necessity of their serving more largely the educational needs of 
the nation by supplying more and better teachers to the schools. It 
is, therefore, proposed to revise them thoroughly, especially in re- 
gard to the chief defect observed since their establishment, namely, 
the poor preparation of students who enter. It is proposed to offer, 
preparatory to the normal school proper, a perfecting course in essen- 
tials covering two or three years, to which would be added French, 
drawing, gymnastics, and music. Such a course would preferably 
be offered in the higher primary schools. The pupil should then pro- 
ceed to the specialized subjects of pedagogy, methodology, psychol- 
ogy, and the history of education, these subjects to cover one year. 

Another serious problem is the great difficulty experienced in secur- 
ing suitable candidates for the scholarships offered in the primary 
normal schools by the several States and Territories. In many of 
them the memoria reports that the appointments had to lapse in 
view of the fact that no candidates qualified for them. The min- 
ister therefore suggested that a system of boarding departments, 
annexed to the normal schools, each accommodating about 20 boys 
of 10 to 13 years, should be established as feeders to the normal 
school system. 

By presidential decree, dated July, 1917, special courses in prac- 
tical agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, and domestic sciences 
were established in the primary normal schools, with the view of 
especially equipping teachers for the rural schools, whose establish- 
ment has come to be regarded as so necessary for the nation. 



62 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. 

By presidential decree of March, 1917, an experimental station of 
agriculture and forestry, with an acclimatization garden, was estab- 
lished near Caracas. It is intended to serve as a model for other 
such stations in other parts of the country. " The objects of the sta- 
tion are the improvement of the methods of cultivation of the chief 
agricultural products of Venezuela; the introduction, selection, and 
distribution of seeds ; experiments in reforestation ; the suitability of 
soils to crops and of crops to various regions; and practical work 
for the training of agricultural foremen and forest rangers." 

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